Building a Strong Housing Future — on Rocky Ground
Images by Kade Alpers Photography
SaverLife member Emil doesn’t take housing or financial stability for granted. As a New Yorker who temporarily experienced homelessness, he recognizes that maintaining housing takes vigilance and know-how to secure a reliable apartment — and often at the expense of his savings goals. “I always pay my rent and utilities. They’re my number one priority because it’s such a privilege to have the housing that I have,” he explains. “I will pretty much give up everything to keep my apartment safe.”
Emil’s experiences with housing reflect a larger trend that SaverLife is tracking among people living on low-to-moderate incomes — the interconnectedness of financial health and housing. Financial health is informing how SaverLife members pay for housing and housing-related expenses. And housing is informing how SaverLife members plan their budgets and respond to financial shocks.
The reciprocal relationship between financial health and housing stability means that changes in one can significantly affect the other, posing a serious threat to long-term financial health and wellbeing. As safe and affordable housing becomes increasingly elusive for many Americans, stories like Emil’s highlight the urgent need for new approaches to creating equitable housing opportunities for all.
Read on to learn how Emil is finding his own solutions to housing, while still taking time to explore his neighborhood, spend time with friends, and deepen his love for New York City.
Finding balance in a bustling city
Emil has lived in New York for nearly a decade. Originally from Bulgaria, he fell in love with the city’s constant movement and decided to make it his permanent home after living in San Francisco for several years.
When he wants to relax or meditate — without spending money — he’ll take long walks and photograph the cityscape, capturing the architecture and people along the way. Even so, Emil recognizes that living in a major city comes with its own challenges. He lives near a popular tourist area, and often has to navigate crowds around his home and on public transit. This can impact his mental health and heighten his anxiety, so he works hard to relax and meditate regularly. One major way that Emil recharges is spending alone time in his apartment, a one bedroom located on the 34th floor. “It’s my sanctuary,” he describes. Here he can distance himself from the hustle and bustle but still appreciate the city’s beauty.
Another challenge that Emil encounters is the cost of living. “Market price groceries in New York City are insane,” he says, explaining that necessary expenses like his internet and phone bills can eat away at his budget. Because Emil relies on disability benefits through the Social Security Administration which are fixed monthly payments as his primary source of income, fluctuating costs of living can have a major impact on how he covers his other expenses. To ensure he has enough money budgeted, Emil will take on brief work opportunities like online surveys and product reviews to supplement his income. “I’m able to do short assignments that are like 15 to 30 minutes or an hour,” he notes. “I find side hustles that I can do that satisfy the IRS income requirement and my disability requirements. These opportunities help me feel less stressed out about how I’m going to pay for rent or electricity.” This mentality is something we’ve heard from other SaverLife members like José.
Credit can go a long way
At the center of Emil’s budgetary concerns is his apartment. He came to his apartment through the housing lottery: a process that took multiple years and two rejections before he finally qualified. “Some people want to win money from the lottery. But I won housing, which is better than any money, because my housing is guaranteed until my 88th birthday.” What Emil means here is that, as long as he continues to meet the requirements for the housing lottery (maintaining a certain income level and keeping his paperwork up to date) he will be able to live in his apartment — with minimal rent hikes — for the next 40 years. And this is the exact relief that Emil was looking for to keep his budget in check. With his rent held at a more affordable rate, he can focus his energy on covering his other expenses.
Emil is outspoken about his gratitude for the housing lottery and his home. However, even with a rent-controlled apartment, he still finds it difficult to get ahead with an annual income of less than $30,000. “I still don’t have expendable income to travel, really. Or visit restaurants or buy new clothes,” he explains. “My utilities are covered under my affordable housing qualifications. But my internet, my phone: those are market prices. Literally I’m always in the red.”
To build in more flexibility in his budget, Emil has developed a system with his credit cards. He will open a new line of credit and collect the sign-on bonus. Then he will “float” his expenses between credit cards and follow a 30-day plan to pay off each amount. It’s critical to Emil that he continues to pay off his credit cards on time, because a lower credit score will impact his qualifications for the housing lottery. “I don’t want to get behind on my credit cards,” he says, “Because that will destroy my possibilities of getting a credit card, and put more of the burden of rent on me in the future.”
By using his credit cards to pay rent and other expenses, Emil can also collect miles and other points. Currently, he’s saving his travel miles to purchase a ticket home to Bulgaria. He’s hoping to surprise his parents over the holidays since they haven’t seen each other in over a year.
Optimistic for the (near) future
When Emil thinks about his financial health future, he feels mostly at ease. Winning the housing lottery gave him an apartment that he loves and a financial boost that will help him keep his budget in check. But he also recognizes that his experiences with housing are symptomatic of a much larger challenge for New Yorkers. “Even though my housing is ‘guaranteed’ — which is such a luxury — I think that the elections right now are showing us that generations of people can’t afford rent, let alone own a home.”
For now, he’s navigating this reality by prioritizing his housing and doing whatever it takes to keep his apartment. But Emil’s looming concern for the future is how his housing will look in old age. Qualifying for the housing lottery and disability has shown him how challenging government programs can be to navigate. “It’s so overwhelming, and there’s so many steps that if you don’t have someone to show you how to do it, or someone to reassure you how to do it, you give up. I applied for housing for two years, and I didn’t start getting any callbacks for the first year and a half.”
As he continues to age with his mental and physical disabilities, Emil worries about the hoops he’ll have to jump through to continue living comfortably — and with financial stability. He furthers: “For right now, I’m covered. But I don’t know what will happen down the road. So I’m constantly looking for resources, and I’m constantly trying to maintain relationships that I have, so that I can rely on their support when I get older.”
For now, Emil’s approach to the future is to build a support network with his friends and to keep advocating for himself. He concludes: “I’m the kind of person who will never stop. I’m always looking for the next step forward.”
(We extend out gratitude to Deutsche Bank for their generous philanthropic support, which has made it possible for this important story to be shared.)