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Not Even This City Councilman Can Find an Apartment in New York City

Chi Ossé called his unsuccessful search for a new home “tiring, treacherous, and competitive.” To many New Yorkers, his experience is relatable.

In 2021, Chi Ossé, 24, a former Manhattan party promoter and activist against police brutality, pulled off an impressive win to become the youngest member of the New York City Council. Now, he faces a new test: moving out of his mother’s townhouse and finding an apartment.

Over the past two months, in between City Council meetings and conversations with constituents, Mr. Ossé, a Democrat, has hunted for a suitable one-bedroom apartment within his district, which includes parts of the Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods in Brooklyn. But, as he recently complained on Twitter, the futile search — he has seen almost 20 places so far and applied to about five — has been “tiring, treacherous, and competitive.”

Sometimes, Mr. Ossé said, he has been outfoxed by people moving faster than him. In other cases, he said apartments had floor damage or water damage or were still in the process of being renovated. Or there was a washer and no dryer.

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