Basement apartments provide affordable housing options in crowded urban hubs like New York City, where the average rent for a Manhattan apartment is $4,140, according to RENTCafé data. But far too ...

Jeff Somers is a freelancer who has been writing about writing, books, personal finance, and home maintenance since 2012. When not writing, Jeff spends his free time fixing up his old house. He has ...

A pilot program to convert illegal basement apartments in parts of Brooklyn into legal and safe units has just five active participants out of roughly 8,000 homeowners initially contacted, city ...

For New York City Council Member Darma Diaz, like so many others, an unsafe basement apartment once served as the only attainable option for housing. After many families living in illegal basement ...

For many low-income and immigrant New Yorkers, an unregulated basement or cellar unit is all they can afford. While the city has made efforts to legalize underground apartments, like a pilot program ...