Erika Hackmann

Most people might think that living in a $500-per-month apartment downtown without roommates is an ideal living situation. It’s not when you're in an approximately 300-square-feet Alphabet City studio on the fourth floor of a walk up, with a very small kitchen and a Murphy bed – the kind that folds out of the wall.

My apartment on Avenue C and 10th Street was a sublet from a family who used it as an office by day while I used it as my living quarters by night.

The apartment, which desperately needed some updating, was definitely not big enough for my two cats and me.