Some People Will Do Crazy Things for a Rent-Controlled Apartment in NYC

Late last month the New York Post reported that a woman named Brenda Williams pretended her dead aunt was still alive to keep a rent-stabilized apartment in Brooklyn. For four years. Williams kept up the ruse by telling people that her aunt couldn't see them because she was sick or asleep. Until the ploy was discovered, Williams paid only $287 a month for a 550-square-foot apartment that rents for roughly $2,200 on the open market.

The situation isn't a typical case of rent-control gone wrong, to say the least. For one thing, the owner of the unit had no legal obligation to keep the old aunt's rent low; according to the Post, he'd done it out of pity for age, health, and poverty. For another, it's a bit hard to determine the greater crime here: Williams's duplicity, or the broader consumer willingness to pay nearly thirty grand a year for an apartment the size of a two-car garage.