Too rich for assistance, too poor to get by: A single mom's struggle to afford life in New York City

Massiel Lugo hit the New York lottery — and it's why she can afford to stay in the city she grew up in.

The 33-year-old single mother of two took over her aunt's lease in Jackson Heights, Queens, when her second child was born. Moving into the two-bedroom was only possible because her aunt, also a single mother, left the city for a more affordable life in Georgia.

"I remember watching her struggle a lot, and then she could no longer do it on her own, and she just got up and left," Lugo said.

While Lugo's apartment isn't rent-stabilized, she inherited a six-year-old lease, and her landlord has held off on raising her rent to market rate, which is around $2,900 for the typical two-bedroom in the area. Still, the Queens native wonders if she should follow in her aunt's footsteps and leave the city.

When her son's father moved out about five years ago, Lugo sublet her second bedroom and skipped meals to make ends meet. These days, she manages to pay her $1,700 rent by juggling multiple jobs while going to school. It helps that her 16-year-old daughter, Jalene, has taken paid internships, and her parents, who live four blocks away, help care for her eight-year-old son, Ozzie, who has autism.

But the city that's always been home is feeling increasingly hostile. A growing share of New Yorkers are struggling to afford life in one of the most expensive cities in the world as the costs of basic necessities like housing, groceries, and childcare soar. For decades, the city has failed to build enough new homes, creating a severe shortage that's driven up rents and home prices. Family-sized apartments with two or three bedrooms are especially hard to come by. The cost crisis is pushing many out of the city, particularly families with young children and lower-income Black and Hispanic residents.

New York City's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, got elected on a pledge to bring these costs down. In January, he and Gov. Kathy Hochul rolled out their plan to significantly expand free and low-cost childcare for young children. Lugo was invited by the mayor's team to an event celebrating the announcement. While she supports the efforts, her kids are too old to benefit from them. Lugo and her family could see cost savings through other mayoral proposals, including free buses, city-owned grocery stores, and more affordable housing.

Lugo is among the more than 40% of the city's renters who spend more than a third of their gross income on housing. Her traditionally working-class immigrant neighborhood is under pressure from gentrification and the rising cost of living. At the same time, the streets and subways don't feel as safe as they did when Lugo was growing up.

"It's a love-hate relationship with New York," she said. "At the end of the day, it's home, but it has changed so much."

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Trying to get ahead

For the last several years, Lugo worked both as a teacher's assistant in a public school and as a therapist for children with autism while earning her bachelor's degree. In January, she started a master's program to become a certified therapist for autistic children.

Over the last few years, she's pieced together between $50,000 and $60,000 in income from her jobs and monthly child support. However, she's working less this semester to make more time for graduate school, which costs her $1,300 per semester. Eventually, she hopes to make upwards of $80,000 as a full-time certified therapist.

In the meantime, her income is barely enough to cover her family's expenses. Transportation and grocery costs have ballooned. Food costs in New York City rose by about 68% between 2013 and 2023 — much more than the national average of 49%, the state comptroller found. Lugo is an ALICE, which stands for asset-limited, income-constrained, employed, and describes someone who makes too much to qualify for most assistance, but still struggles to get by. She no longer gets food stamps, and her grocery bills have ballooned as her kids have gotten older.

"I buy food, and it's just gone," she said. "I never thought I would yell at my kids, like, 'Did you guys really just finish all the juice boxes in a day?'"

Despite living a block from the 7 subway train and multiple bus lines, Lugo said she's increasingly found herself taking Ubers, in part because Ozzie is sensitive to the noise on public transit. It helps that Jalene rides transit for free because she's a public school student, and Ozzie takes a city-provided school bus because of his diagnosis.

She's also racked up about $7,000 in credit card debt by treating her kids to occasional meals out and new clothes. She was late on her rent payment last month after putting more money toward paying down her credit card.

"I used to be really good at saving, but my mindset has changed a lot. I'm just like, what am I saving up for?" she said. "I want to travel, I want to make memories with my kids, and that's become more of a priority for me."

A changing neighborhood

When Lugo's parents first moved to Queens from the Dominican Republic about 45 years ago, life was affordable for them, Lugo said. Some of her aunts and uncles were even able to buy co-ops in the area.

But the neighborhood has gentrified. Lugo remembers when the first Starbucks opened up in Jackson Heights in 2008 — it felt like a turning point. A few years ago, her father closed the bodega he owned for decades when the building was sold to a developer. The neighborhood has felt less safe in recent years, she said, with a rise in illegal brothels and disorder on the streets.

Lugo isn't ready to leave the city, but she'd like to raise her kids in a quieter neighborhood. She dreams of moving to Bayside, a wealthier, more suburban part of Queens, but rent and transportation costs out there would be even higher. She thinks that finding any other apartment similar in price and size to her own would be nearly impossible in the city.

Jalene has her sights set on Yale and wants to eventually become a lawyer. Lugo has told her she can only move away for college if she gets a full ride.

"I tell her, 'I want you to live your life. I want you to be a child, but you need to work extremely hard, because a studio is $2,000 right now. I can only imagine how much your generation is going to have to pay in the future,'" Lugo said.