SURVEY RESPONSES

"I am appalled by the construction situation, both at 181 Mercer and the co-generator plant on W. 3rd St. From the early morning (often pre-8am) deafening noise to the crews' often obvious indifference to safety precautions during the pandemic (absence of masks and flaunting of physical distancing rules even when they can be followed, which isn't often in construction), the safety of both the constructions and the residents has been comprised. Why? Deadlines and budgets have been prioritized over the peace of mind and safety of residents. It's hard to imagine, but this is our reality. And the cost of 181 Mercer? $1.285 BILLION and climbing. At the same time, both faculty and staff have been informed that our salaries are frozen, with no raises or research grants ... meanwhile, rents continue to climb."

"I have had to refinance my student loans to get a lower rate in an effort to be able to have enough money to pay off my debt, afford my rent, and afford living expenses. With the construction deduction, rent is 29% of my paycheck. Without the construction deduction, 35%. Under the rent hike they want to to sign off for July 2020, 38%. I am a single faculty member who signed a lease on the least expensive apartment NYU offered. Come July, this rent is going to consume nearly 40% of my *After tax* paycheck. I can't pay off my student loans effectively, I can barely supplement my retirement with an IRA, and I certainly can't ever afford other large expenses in the future (like owning my own home, vacationing, covering my own research expenses if my accounts remain frozen). My employer is sucking me dry. By disenfranchising a professor like this, the only thing NYU signs up for is years of me wasting my time, their time, and other university's time trying to get pay raises. There is no way my salary will increase enough to keep up with these rent hikes; I may have to leave NYU at some point."

"My housing costs are enormous. I've had to eat through my savings to pay the combination of rent and childcare. Rents shouldn't go up any faster than salaries. As it is, my take-home wages (post rent) have only gone down in my time at NYU, despite having gotten tenure."

"As a single mother of two children who lives in a 2 bedroom apartment in WSV, I am afraid that I will no longer be able to pay my rent if it is increased once again in 2 years, especially since our AMI is no longer being offered at this time. It is unfair to increase rent by 10% every three years when AMI increases for our department fall between 1 and 2.5%. I believe that the rent increase should be suspended or significantly decreased for the next 5 years or for the duration of the recession."

"Housing is substandard. We can’t cook without the house filling with smoke. We have a bathtub that is too small for a young child. And we pay twice as much in rent as we paid for our house [in a comparably expensive city]. It’s a joke. We are being ripped off and we have to kick back to the company’s hedge fund managers for the “privilege” of working here."

"I just did the math. In 2011, when I moved to my current apt (2 bedroom, 4 people), rent used to be 49% of my paycheck (post-tax, not considering other deductions such as health insurance). Since then I was promoted and today rent is "only" 41% of my paycheck (post tax). I just received the new contract, and once it goes into effect, rent will go up to 46% of my paycheck. If we consider gross pay, rent is now 29% of my income, and will go up to 32%. If it was a single income household, we would qualify as rent-burdened."

"I have not previously struggled, but in light of the impact of COVID and my upcoming rent increase with my lease renewal this year, this will become more difficult. My partner has been unemployed for the last month due to COVID and lost his most recent job offer, again due to COVID. This substantially complicates our rent situation, and if this situation continues, we will have difficulty paying not only the rent as it is, but also the 9.5% rent increase that we are due for on June 1, 2020."

"When I was an assistant professor, the cost of housing and full-time child care exceeded my take home pay. As a result, we took longer to pay off my husband's student loans and had credit card debt for basic things (groceries, etc.). After two promotions and two retentions, changes in my husband's non-NYU employment, and no longer needing to pay full-time child care (older children in school), we no longer struggle month to month (and also now pay higher rent because of a move). But we stick to a much stricter budget and have much less savings than we would if we had more reasonable housing."

"We haven't struggled, but when both kids were in daycare we didn't have any money left at the end of the month. We are fortunate that we are both professors at NYU, but can imagine that if one of us had a lower-paying job, we would struggle to pay rent. We have also passed on opportunities to move to a larger apartment, partly because of the increase in rent. We can pay rent now, but are worried about what it will be like in the future if it continues to increase at the rate at which it is currently increasing. Honestly, if the rent continues to increase so quickly we may not stay in New York, we may try to find jobs in a more affordable city."

"We are unable to save substantially, including for a place to live after I retire. And we are struggling to save meaningfully for retirement itself. Since I came to NYU 6 years ago, my rent has increased more than my salary. (This is true as a matter of policy — the AMI pool is almost always 2% per year, while the average 3-year rent increase is 9.5%.) I am expecting there to be no salary increases this year, and respect that, but just received my new lease with a 9% increase. This means that it is INCREASINGLY difficult to save for retirement or to move out of faculty housing the longer I remain here."

"When my son was in daycare, it was extremely difficult to survive. If they increase the rent more than 10% next year, then most of my salary will go to paying rent."

"I have almost $100,000 in student loans from grad school. I had a stipend and taught, but the $15,000/year I was making between 2002-2012 was not enough to live in the Bay Area so I took the maximum in federally subsidized student loans. I make the income-contingent payments every month but do not seem to be making a dent in the principal. My rent increases at a higher rate than my salary. I have been applying for low-income housing. (I qualify!)"

"My wife and I are unable to make substantial payments to our credit card and student loan debts due to the cost of housing and the low pay of postdoctoral position. (My wife is a full time, first generation student at elsewhere.) My contract is up in August — I had hoped to line up a new job by then in order to ensure my wife and I can keep a roof over our heads once that time is up, but finding a job in the current circumstances is pretty challenging. Since we cannot accumulate any savings at the moment, we worry about what will happen if I am unable to find employment by August."

"There should be a cap to the monthly rent in relation to faculty salary. For a low-income family, the government policy requires no families should pay for more than one-third of their family income on housing, and this is how a subsidy is calculated to help an eligible low-income families so that they do not spend more than one-third of their income on housing. National statistics have indicated that middle-to-high-income families pay about 10-20% of their income on housing. Mine is over 50%, how on earth can I afford this kind of expense? Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as university faculty housing would create such heavy burden on my financial security."

"Consider that salary raises have never been 10%. A 10% increase for every three year is a harsh burden on our financial security. Also, a 10% increase of $2,000 monthly rent for three years (a total of $7,200 for three years) is very different from a 10% increase of a $4,000 monthly rent (a total of $14,000 for three years that NYU puts in pocket right away). When on earth faculty salary could be increased by $14,000?!"

"If I weren’t married to another income earner I wouldn’t afford NYU housing. What happened to the every three years upgrades program? That was so useful to maintain necessary things (bathrooms floors, etc.)"

"I have hardly any money left once my rent is deducted from my salary. I sometimes have to teach adjunct at other universities, in addition to my tenured position, to make ends meet. And I am still not always able to do it."

"When I first came to NYU rent was nearly 100% of my post-tax pay check. I did not have remaining student debt, and my partner had an income that nearly covered our other expenses (including health insurance). But I had to borrow money to pay for childcare and summer camp in order to work and had to forgo childcare on many occasions (school breaks, etc.) while still working full time toward tenure. I have also incurred debt for unexpected expenses (such as orthodonture and medical not covered by insurance) in order to pay rent."

"I pay my rent but it leaves my family struggling. My husband could not work for our first two years in the U.S. because of our visa. 2020 is our third year in the U.S. and we recently received green cards. We are both foreigners, and I am a junior faculty on tenure track. We have two small children. I paid for a day care for one of my child $2000 every month, in addition to $2735 for rent. My salary is $6600 before taxes and insurance. So after paying taxes, insurance, rent and day care we had $0. In these two years we depleted whatever savings we had. The last year got better because my two kids Are now in public school. But because of the COVID-19, my husband lost his current job and cannot find any other job. So he is again unemployed. The rent increase will be devastating for us. As I described above, because our family of four lives only on my assistant professor salary, and my husband is unemployed because of the COVID, the rent increase is devastating for us."