This Williamsburg Renter Pays $450 a Month for a 40-Square-Foot Cubbyhole

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — North Brooklyn residents, living as they do in the bullseye of gentrification, already know the rent is too damn high. And when it's not, without fail, the living space is too damn tiny — or downright illegal.

Just ask Jack Leahy, a 25-year-old transplant from Austin, Texas, who landed in Williamsburg in 2015 with dreams of making it as a musician. According to the New York Times, a happy-go-lucky Leahy shells out $450 per month for a windowless, 9-by-4.5-foot "cubbyhole" with a ceiling so low you have to bend to stand.

With dimensions like these, it appears Leahy's cubbyhole also finds itself outside the confines of New York City housing law. According to the NYC Housing Maintenance Code Sec. 27-2074 (b):

"In a converted dwelling, every living room shall have a minimum height of eight feet, except that a living room located on the top story shall have a minimum height of seven feet in any part located more than six feet from the front of such room."

A young and starving artist who moves to New York City with aspirations to hone their craft and elevate their profile has never had it easy.

Behind Leahy's twin bed is a door that leads to a "sheer drop into the performance space," the Times reports — "which gave him a scare a few months back when he leaned against it and felt it moving."

But don't feel too bad for the guy: The Times reports that Leahy can fit the contents of an entire suitcase in his cubbyhole, and has access to both a bathroom and a kitchen, though he has to share them with seven other artist types who live in the building.

The average rent in Williamsburg and neighboring Greenpoint increased over 78 percent from 1990 to 2014, according to a recent study published by NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

Then again, there's this: Legendary songwriter Bob Dylan transplanted from Minneapolis to a Greenwich Village studio at 161 West 4th St. in 1961, paying $60 a month in rent. Adjusted for inflation, Dylan's rent today would reportedly be around $483.

Leahy might have a good deal going.

Lead image (not the actual room described above) by Sue-Jane Sang/Flickr