People are Homeless… While 20,000 Offices Are Empty in NYC 

In the USA, individuals living in cars due to partial homelessness result from a complex interplay of factors. High housing costs relative to income, stagnant wages, and income inequality drive this issue. Job loss, weak social support, medical expenses, evictions, and lack of affordable housing also contribute, while systemic problems and inadequate policies further perpetuate the phenomenon.

Keep talking, Cash. Keep planting the seeds of change. You are doing incredibly important work.

The problem is they will convert them to high-end apartments. The people on the streets, will still be on the streets.

As Dr. Seuss’ Lorax said, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s Not.” Thank you Cash for caring about this housing crisis. Hopefully your segments will encourage the power brokers who can implement the changes to start caring too! I mean after all, it will put money in their pockets, so why not!

Sounds just like us in the UK,”We also need a Government that puts its citizens first and not last🇺🇸🇬🇧.

Cash is evolving, he went from showing us NYC apartments to full blown covering every socio economic issue that's going on today. Respect !! You're doing the job of so called journalists

There's two big problems with turning offices into housing: 1. Not enough windows. 2. Not enough plumbing for the extra bathrooms.

So, if this office space was converted into apartments, would the homeless folks be able to afford the rent? The building owner would be spending a whole lot of money on conversions, and they would want to get that back by getting hefty rents. Plus, NYC's zoning laws and crazy housing regulations aren't user friendly, for anyone. It amazes me how all government leaders allowed this to happen without a thought about all the problems and without any solutions in mind whatsoever. Great video, Cash. Thank you.

JD knows of what he speaks. He immediately the questions Cash had for him ,and the way he rattled off his answers while being understood makes it even better. He should be brought back for future uploads.

Problem is around the world, housing is being built for richer people, not the poorer ...so however much extra housing being built the average joe won't be able to afford it!

Really enjoying these new videos you've been putting out. The apartment videos are cool but i feel like these are so much more interesting and important considering what's going on in the world. Great job!

Violet deserves a big thank you for allowing you to use her colorful blocks for your demonstration! Thanks Violet!

Cash, your real estate tours are super fun to watch but I really like these "news reel" type videos you've been doing lately, great work. It'd be cool if one of the local news channels picked a few of these up! Keep up the good work!

Everything you covered in this video - homlessness, cost of living, immigration - politicians made this all a political issue, therefore it will never get better until they find the perfect way to blame the middle lower class residents and then punish us (financially of course) to fix the issues they created. Buckle up local legal residents, we got a long struggle ahead in nyc

The problem is the landlord will make them into rentals but they will charge luxury prices.

SO much space!! You should see all the empty " luxury" apartments in New Orleans..its absolutely insane.. we don't have ( as much) of a homeless problem as NYC, but the amount of wasted living space just drives me insane... with ALL these empty spaces NOBODY should be homeless

NYC has a politician problem.

Not nearly enough toilets - little to no showers, insufficient number of kitchens per floor, inoperable windows so no egress in the case of a fire or other catastrophe, etc. Converting office buildings into residential is a MAJOR investment so it won't happen for people that can't afford to pay rent, let alone purchase a condo.

I love your informative vlogs- media doesn’t show all this stuff!

Hi Cash, I really appreciate the new direction you are taking on this channel. Great work and information being shared here.

unfortunately, the cost of converting office spaces to apartments is expensive. It's a "simple" idea that is not simple. The cost will make the apartments unaffordable - problem NOT solved

The reality is that cash really didn't emphasize as much on the enormous cost. Commercial buildings in NYC are not always going to have the highest and best use and will need to be razed. Studies show that developers should plan on spending $500 to $800 per square foot or more on an office-to-residential conversion in a city like NYC. This idea has been kicked around for years. On paper, it sounds good but overall, the ideal is very costly! For example, think about NYC's 100 year old underground plumbing system.

Converting empty spaces into many apartments is a great idea IF they are affordable to the majority of people. I hope this becomes a reality throughout this country.

NYC needs to change their legislation Not only is it expensive to install a light shaft, but it’s not guaranteed to be structurally sound if the workers are encouraged to rush and the renovator wants to cut corners to reduce cost. Will there be enough city inspectors to check every renovation? Maybe not. We can’t pretend like it won’t happen. We know people don’t always do the right and ethical thing. It’s not just layoffs and fabricated inflation, it also includes things that can cause physical harm.

You have done some really great work on the increasing problem. the only thing that worries me is if they turn these offices into apartments, will they make them affordable or tur4n them into more luxury apartments that no one can afford. they did that in Seattle with office buildings but made them out of reach for middle and low income.

Thanks for keeping this major problem in nyc highlighted. Your videos are great. Travelling over to nyc on Saturday from Northern Ireland 🇺🇸🏈🙌

My job is in the city and I work from home in NJ. My office on 34th and Park is a ghost town. So much unused space that can be used for people to live. If they were converted to something affordable I would definitely pack up and move. It would be great because I could still get to NJ fast and conveniently to see my family regularly. I would just need a place to stash my car.

Cash, what you show is so important. Housing across the whole country is in crisis and it’s the same in Canada! Converting office space is genius. You are highlighting the reality of the situation. Scary for everyone.

Near me in Chicago there was an organization that used to have multiple shelters, but since Covid they only have one shelter now. I’ve noticed more people with tents in parks and just on sidewalks. I don’t know what they are going to do in the winter. 😢

You are right Cash!! Thank you for being an advocate. Be the Change!! It is time to collaborate and coordinate to solve these human made problems like homeless! Continued blessings to you and your family!!

25 Water. It was the JP Morgan office building where I worked around 2008. They call it "red" building if I remember. Right next door is the main Goldman Sachs building which I think is still used by GS. As mentioned, making office building into residential buildings will take expensive renovations. Not sure if there are enough high paid workers to fill the new luxury living spaces. For sure they won't be "affordable" living quarters.

This problem exists EVERYWHERE...even where I live in North Carolina. This problem will NEVER get solved as long as real estate...and that includes apartment complexes... are owned by Real Estate comps. The sole purpose of RE comps is to make a profit. RE comps are not going to lower rents. If they do that, they won't make a profit. Also, heads of social service orgs make 80,000 to 150,000 dollars/year . If the homeless "problem" gets fixed, they lose their jobs. So the homeless issue gets "managed" instead. In a capitalist economy, EVERYTHING is about money. The 3rd cause of this problem is the fact that NO ONE in the local communities CARE enough to do anything about the problem. If it doesn't effect them "personally", then no one cares. This is why America is falling apart ......NO ONE CARES. I wanted to add that there is a 4th problem.....WAGES. America's wages don't match cost-of-living indexes. For example, a McDonalds worker in the US makes about 12 to 15/hour. In Germany, a MDs worker makes 25 to 30/hour. The average COS in Germany is 24% lower than in the US.

Cash is on a roll. Keep it going! Let them hear!

I ve lived in the same apt in Az since 2011. It is a 2 bedroom 2 bath with a walled backyard. In 2011 it rented for 425 and now it’s up to 600. I consider myself extremely lucky and grateful. 🍃🙏🏻🍃

It's the same in the UK. Lots of offices lying empty including my old one. All depends on the length & width of the building. So many are just not suitable for conversion so it's cheaper to demolish them. If they can be converted I would imagine that rent may not be affordable so we are back at square one!

Great idea to convert empty office space to apartments. Build the utilities in the center with bathrooms, laundry, storage rooms in the center. All of the apartments would have windows.

Big respect for speaking up on this crisis with the platform you've built. NYC has to change and become more efficient.

Cash, I enjoy your videos so much. Thank you.

I just love your channel... and your common sense.

Damn Cash, you just keep putting out better and better videos chock-full of interesting information.

In all the time I spend watching news on one platform or another, I don't get as good a coverage as you give Cash. Keep up the social commentary!

The problem isn't that there aren't enough resources for the poor. The problem is that the rich are never satisfied.

In some countries they actually have stores, restaurants, malls, hospitals and other stuff in the lower floors and the middle to top floors can be residential. This set up is very common in Asia and may actually help with the cost and lay out problems. It also brings in more people in otherwise empty former office areas in NY. Developers really have to think outside the box here.

I grew up in South Florida and now live in East Central Florida. The problem here is empty plazas with only a few stores in them but yet they keep building more🤷‍♀️ I had a dream years ago about turing storefronts into apartments. I think it is happening in some places but so far not where I live. At least Cash is trying to brainstorm the issue. My old boss never listened to there's nothing we can do about so let's not get upset. She said no, let's get upset and do sonething about it and saw her put into action many times.

Awesome job cash see you tomorrow

So interesting. Keep up the great reporting work Cash and change will come!

Love your channel. You are an inspiration to everyone. Be careful though, you will get censored and lose your channel. Be creative how you go about exposing this crisis.

Thanks Cash for this video about two major social crises: Homelessness and Lack of Residential Housing.

The same thing is happening in Florida, especially in Miami. It's easy to understand: they don't want the middle class worker to live among the powerful or those with purchasing power. In Miami, as far as I know, there is not a single apartment or house project for the middle class.

Make the apartments income based so people can afford them. Thanks for bringing this up. Seattle needs to do the same. Too much bureaucracy

I love videos like this almost more than the housing videos ;)

Building is almost always less expensive than retrofitting. What would the ROI be? NY needs a massive reset in prices to make this feasible for owners and renters/buyers alike. In Britain many conversions are large slums!

I've never lived in NYC, but I used to go there for meetings frequently. One of the few things that still stands out where the crazy laws about everything! It amazes me that anyone can get any business done there.

I like to watch your apartment tour videos but I really love these new mini documentaries on what's really happening in NYC, from the crime, to the migrant crisis and housing crisis. Love it! Thank you 👍🏼

Same situation here in Germany.

Thank you for doing this. Live in a small town and they are advertising an office for 695. mo. Remember in years gone by when people lived in the back or on the second floor of their commercial property. This is a lot less than I am paying in rent. Could place sign in window, " Coming soon Ms. Sunshine Sue's".

Thanks for always giving us the real

Hi Cash and to your friend so sorry to hear about so many homelessness and empty buildings that are unoccupied. Stay well and safe 👍🙏

Cash I’m here for these breakdowns and the neighborhood tours ❤

I used to work at 25 Water Street, it used to be called 4 New York Plaza. It was a lousy office building. Windows were small, plumbing did not work well, heating and cooling was not so good either. It was a low quality even though it was relatively new building. I imagine it is costing almost as much to retrofit it as it would cost to build a new building. I would never ever live there knowing the old building would still be underneath all that retrofitting.

I really like the direction you've been going in lately! Keep it up 👍✌️

Always enjoy your vids. Unfortunately, real NY'ers will be priced out of these conversations, once again.

Very good report. It was very educational and enjoyable.

I can't even imagine. I have lived in my apartment in NE Portland since 2015 and they have forgotten to raise my rent since 2019 so i'm just chillin at $1290. (My neighbor pays $1540) Seeing these NY prices make me feel even better about it.

I have enjoyed Cash's light hearted visits to dinky student studios, luxe spaces and the rare treasures in between. But his evolution has been fascinating. The city he loves has serious problems. Often related to housing Converting office space to affordable living space is not easy. Conflicts between city and state governments affects lots of us. My ridiculous Texas governor loves to send busloads of refugees North. Keep up the good work

We have the same problem in Toronto. Migrants showed up in Toronto just to be left homeless on the street, all the while Work From Home was a huge thing during the pandemic, and all of those buildings were just vacant for the duration. No major company that operated out of those offices folded during the pandemic, which means everyone did their jobs regardless of being in the office or at home. When the pandemic ended and offices decided to drag everyone back into work with exorbitant commutes, the first thing they were met with were ads in their lobbies mocking them for not working from home anymore, I kid you not. The homelessness and housing crises are getting out of control up here, and an easy fix would be to convert buildings already built into affordable housing. Ridiculous situations with nigh easy and cheap answers.

Great video Cash it's both informative and entertaining. And it's much better than some mainstream media pieces . 👏

All the empty office premises represents billions of dollars real estate. The owners will only convert them to residential if they can get a high rental return. You will never see the average or low wage earner being able to live in those conversions.

Cash has done a great job of giving us a seamless mix of apartment review videos and “the state of NYC” videos. 👍👍

Upstate new yorker here. Albany can get stuffed tbh, it's a real toilet right now, probably worse off than NYC. We should keep sucking tax money out of wall street until we get it all fixed up. I love your content, very entertaining :)

your content is impressive as always. more vids on office space conversion pls! it is gonna be huge for nyc

"There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." Thank you for the excellent work you've done and continue to do.

Zoning is only 1 issue; Fire protection, egress, plumbing, electric, ect all add up. Instead of large baths, common HVAC and electric, it needs to be gutted and rebuilt for numerous apartments with individuals baths, kitchens, HVAC, electric, ect. This will create more housing just at a not so affordable price. Rezone industrial areas and convert warehouses.

That wouldn't be affordable, penthouse? Love your videos and getting to see the family every once in awhile. Thanks for sharing.

FANTASTIC video proposing necessary change to address the tragic epidemic of homelessness & lack of affordable housing in NYC while still making sense for commercial landlords & the state to cooperate and be incentivized to do so. Great way to balance a potentially contentious issue, Cash, while presenting it in your lighthearted, trademark style ! 👏👏👏

Cash, you have great vision..better than most " leaders"

Cash, yours videos become way better when you come up with a lot of useful information. Thanks for this content!🎉

Keep in mind governments use housing as cash cows; property taxes, impact fees, permit fees, excise taxes but blame the landlords, it requires no thinking

Seems like such an obvious fix ... Convert office space into residential space 🧐

Cash is single handedly exposing just how terrible the leaders of NYC are to allow such dumb laws to exist. I can’t even imagine the money and math that goes into carving a hole into a building just for windows. Sounds like good space being thrown away 🤦‍♂️

A lot of these buildings are impractical for conversion. This one in particular...they guy said it would be only 4 large apartments on the floor. I imagine that has to do with windows, entries, etc. The cost to rent such a large apartment would end up being more than the average person could afford. And the build out, when you consider plumbing, AC/Heat, etc. would be very costly.

you my good man are way more informative than the news will ever be keep up the awesome videos coming. might i also add you really know how the explain it in a easily understandable way 🏬🏬🏬🏬🏬😎😎😎

You are creative, resourceful, compassionate and so on top of it!! Thank you Cash!! Yawl, share this on every platform possible.

This was a really good and informative video! Makes me mad tho, New York never seems to be doing enough and they don’t treat their residents with an ounce of care and respect.

Excellent video, Cash 😊 I really like your new direction!

The reasons for laws / building codes about how deep into a building a living space can be -- especially a bedroom-- have to do with things like fires (needing safe egress in case of a fire) as well as infectious diseases (getting more fresh air into a building was important back in the day because of things like tuberculosis ... and it is STILL important because of tuberculosis making a comeback for the past 40 years. Plus Covid, flu, measles, and plenty of other airborne infectious diseases.) There are legitimate health and safety reasons for having the ability to generate a cross breeze with open windows in a residential structure. A lot of these apartments in New York City already shock me when I see that there are bedrooms with no windows at all, or a window that leads to a shaft present in an older building strictly for ventilation purposes but is not large enough for egress purposes, or a window that either leads to an outside wall or a large enough internal ventilation shaft, but doesn't have any kind of fire escape ladder. Those rooms shouldn't be allowed to be listed as bedrooms. List those room as a home office, or put a bathroom with vent fans in that part of the unit. But don't pretend it's a safe place for somebody to sleep.

The coverage is amazing, please keep up the good work!

Sounds not easy to convert office buildings into appartments based on the enormes size of these buildings. However, NYC is about challenge. All the best to get it done - we all know it needs to get done.

you’re incredibly engaging and you’re a great person to bring awareness

NYC is circling the drain.

Good but I would have liked more detail on the difficulty of conversion. Adding plumbing. Adding the facilities necessary for kitchens. Offices don’t have these things in the right places to split into apartments.

We always hear "oh the offices aren't regulated/follow code for living in them yada yada" which amounts to "it's too hard so let's do nothing". Infuriating. Like we put a vehicle on Mars, I think there are folks out there smart enough to address this. Always loved your channel Cash, but it's really cool that you're using your platform to bring light on and discuss these issues.

Love the way you show these buildings and you say it like it is! Just so refreshing! Thanks for sharing,

NYC is over.

The BIG issue- is whether working individuals and families in NYC would be able to even afford these office to apartment conversions. And you would need a really good architect to design for light and air.

Agree w turning vacant office spaces to homes for homeless Americans but these illegals? Nope. Go home and fight for your country instead of milking ours. I’m so sick and tired of half my paycheck going to taxes that don’t support Americans.

Albany, NY converts office buildings to apartments. Works out very well, some have quite high rents.

I have said time and time again, take the empty offices and turn them into affordable apartments. IT could EASILY be done. The same problem exists here, and no one listens to the obvious solution.

Here's another option for some of the newer office buildings that were built as "open office" spaces with shared desks. NYC also needs more homeless shelters and transitional housing (for migrants, etc.). The wiring in these open office spaces was probably designed to power a lot of shared work stations in the center of these large rooms. Why not turn some of these spaces into "capsule hotels," buy pre-built modular capsules (from Asia), connect these modules to the existing wiring to create private sleeping spaces for each person? The capsules would have lights, outlets to power cell phones, laptops, etc., and air circulation. Most offices have shared bathrooms and kitchens already, so shorter-term residents could share those facilities while having a small but private space of their own, an address, and a place to live while they get their papers processed, find work, etc. And there might be far less renovation cost to convert a couple of these buildings into capsule hotels versus trying to rebuild all of them into apartments, which would be cost-prohibitive. Of course, some of the older buildings in NYC can be more easily converted into individual apartments because they were already built as smaller private offices to begin with, versus the newer buildings that were open-office. BTW, I also like the idea of building a light shaft in the center of some of these large office spaces -- I think this solution came from the tuberculosis epidemic in NYC over 100 years ago.

Have you seen what the homeless do to shelters ? In less than 6 months this beautiful building would be a high rise slum. Bad idea to convert it to apartments.