Bed-Stuy Council Rep Can't Find An Affordable Apartment In Bed Stuy

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Not even New York City Council Member Chi Ossé can find an affordable apartment in Bed-Stuy.

The young council member, who represents Bed-Stuy and northern Crown Heights, took to Twitter last week to share his frustration about the difficult NYC housing market.

"I've been looking for an apartment to move into in Bed-Stuy for the past two months and the search has been tiring, treacherous, and competitive," Ossé said on Twitter. "Broker fees need to be abolished!"

In his two months of searching, Ossé has seen nearly 20 apartments and applied to five, he told the New York Times. Whether he is beat by other renters moving faster, deterred by damage or lacking amenities, Ossé has come up empty, the New York Times reported.

Bed-Stuy is generally less expensive than some of its neighboring brownstone neighborhoods but it saw rent prices grow steadily from 2020 to 2022, according to real estate data crunched by StreetEasy.com.

The neighborhood's median rents currently stand at $2,700 for a one-bedroom and $2,950 for a two-bedroom, and in Brooklyn these medians were $2,888 and $3,125 respectively, according to StreetEasy. Douglas Elliman had Brooklyn's median prices slightly higher, at $3,000 and $3,600, respectively, according to a report from July 2022.

In Manhattan, the median rental price for a 1-bedroom was $4,075 and 2-bedroom was $5,375, compared to Queens the queens median of $2,295 and $2,800 respectively, according to StreetEasy. The Bronx median prices were the lowest — $1,950 and $2,442 respectively.

Ossé had originally started his search looking for a one-bedroom between $1,500 and $2,000, but realized that was too low, adjusting his target to $3,000.

But Ossé still struggled to find something that was suitable.

"Some of these apartments are like someone told an alien to draw their idea of what an apartment is,” he told the NY Times. “They’ll have the fridge in the living room.”

Many of Ossé's constituents are worried about housing and rapid gentrification — feel they are being priced out of their neighborhoods and have faced double-digit rent increases, he told the New York Times.

Ossé said he was feeling hopeful after finding a broker on Instagram, and seeing an apartment he liked with a $2,250 rental price.

"I am hopeful," he told the New York Times.

Read the full story from the New York Times.