The rents in Long Island City are as high as the neighborhood’s towering rental buildings, but resident Aaron Randolph doesn’t have to sweat any real housing expenses.
That’s because 31-year-old Randolph, a musician and an elementary school teaching assistant, lives in his van — a used 2005 Dodge Sprinter that he bought for $5,000. He parks it in a legal, unmetered spot on a quiet street.
It’s the only home he’s known since moving to the Big Apple just over a year ago, and he chose it to avoid coughing up rent.
“I was excited to move into an apartment when I came to New York,” Randolph says. “But every time I went to go look at one, [I’d say] ‘Man, I don’t want to spend that kind of money.’ ”He’s right — even though he makes about $30,000 per year, it’s a lot.
In the most recent tallies, Long Island City ranked as the highest-priced Queens neighborhood to rent a studio ($2,383), a one-bedroom ($2,871) and a two-bedroom ($3,744), according to a February report released by brokerage MNS. In northwest Queens, which includes Long Island City, average February rents grew 7.8 percent to $2,898 month-over-month, according to Douglas Elliman.
And while rents citywide are stagnating, the cost of living in the Big Apple remains just that — big.
Randolph has carefully assembled everything he needs to be comfortable and safe. His 60 square feet of living space fits a fold-out bed, drawers and a clothing rack. He cooks on a butane burner, while he takes showers and does laundry at friends’ apartments — including the home of his 24-year-old girlfriend, Maria.
When the couple spends time together in the van, they watch movies on Randolph’s laptop with sound amplified by wireless speakers.
She’s supportive of his living situation, he says. Even his family members have gifted him items to make van-dwelling easier. His mom bought him a solar-powered light, while his grandmother gave him a battery-powered lantern.
“I’ve been living in a van so long, I’m like a tomato that grows in a cage — you just grow to your surroundings,” he says.
That’s right: This isn’t the first time Randolph has bedded down on four wheels.
While living in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2013, he similarly grew tired of spending money on rent. He opted instead to bunk in a 1998 Dodge van in the parking lot of the seminary he attended, where he studied theology and art.
It’s an odd arrangement, to be sure, but it’s actually legal in New York City.
“He’s not violating any criminal statute,” says Steven Wasserman, a criminal attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “The only thing I would say is there is some potential for that van being a nuisance.”
Randolph isn’t alone when it comes to living on wheels along city streets.
In 2013, a 25-year-old man who goes by the Reddit handle BlueMcCrew — who would not reveal his real name — said on the digital platform that he lived in a Honda Fit to save the cash to pay back his student loans. Doing this, he put aside $600 per month from his $3,500 paychecks, according to Business Insider.
“I do find myself a little cramped, but it sure beats rent,” he said.
Meanwhile, Manhattan native Jimmy Tarangelo has lived for nearly two decades in two vans parked in the West Village, where denizens of surrounding luxury condos and rentals are saddled with sky-high monthly payments.
“I’m not the cuckoo one living in the truck,” he told The Post in 2016. “They’re cuckoo for paying to live there.”