Rental housing shortage in Borough Park an unprecedented “crisis,” Haredi media says
Some newlyweds are reportedly being “forced” to rent basement apartments, or to live temporarily in parents’ or in-laws’ guestrooms
A street corner in Borough Park. Credit: Shtetl
Feb 6, 2024 5:30 PM
Haredi newlyweds in Borough Park are facing a severe shortage of apartments available for rent, according to multiple Haredi news outlets.
Calling it a “crisis” and a “painful reality,” the Haredi news website BoroPark24 reported that many families are struggling to find suitable places for newlyweds to live after their wedding. Many couples are being “forced” to live in basements or even pay for hotel stays until they can find something more suitable.
“In the end,” one parent told BoroPark24, “we had no choice but to take a furnished apartment in a tiny basement, so below standard from anything we imagined.”
Among the factors leading to this crisis are high interest rates on new mortgages, explosive population growth in many Haredi communities, and the costly infrastructure required for establishing new communities.
In recent years, however, new Haredi communities have sprung up outside of the more established ones. One example is a thriving new community in Linden, N.J., which has, over the past decade, become a viable alternative to places like Borough Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, or Lakewood.
More intrepid couples have ventured even farther, with new Hasidic communities springing up in Mount Olive and Greenville, N.J., and even as far out as Casa Grande, Ariz., and Tampa, Fla.