Can you afford that, America? I can't!
Related: Boston's New Ivory Tower
Rich Untouched by Real Estate Collapse
"With lottery luck, pricey digs at 'affordable' rent; At Back Bay's Mandarin, 10 apartments put aside for the fortunate without fortunes" by Jenifer B. McKim, Globe Staff | November 29, 2008
You don't have to be superrich to live in the Mandarin Oriental. Just lucky.
Beginning Monday, the city's most luxurious new address will begin accepting applications for a lottery that will select tenants to live in the $300 million complex's 10 "affordable apartments."
With the Back Bay building billing itself as "the pinnacle of luxury and personal service," an affordable apartment there isn't exactly cheap. Rents will range from $1,254 to $2,172 a month for the one- and two-bedroom apartments. Still, that's a hefty break from what the elite pay. The rents on the 25 market-rate apartments range from $6,000 to $13,000 a month.
Ailley Sysouphanh, who spends her days waiting on residents of the Mandarin, among other customers, said she would be thrilled to be able to live among them, too. A saleswoman at the Italian fine linens store Frette on the first floor of the Mandarin, the 28-year-old plans to apply for one of the affordable units.
"That would be a dream come true," she said. The lottery is slated for mid-December, and is being held under a city-run affordable-housing program that is intended to bring middle-income residents to even the most exclusive of addresses and neighborhoods....
How about KEEPING THEM in their homes and BUILDING NEW HOUSING for the HOMELESS? Oh, are AmeriKa's priorities F***ed UP or what?
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To qualify, individuals must make between $48,050 and $72,050 a year, and a family of four, between $68,650 and $102,950. City residents and handicapped tenants are given preference in the lottery. Winners will live in the same lap of luxury as their wealthy neighbors.... So who could afford and be willing to put up with such luxury? Mandarin representatives expect applicants will probably be white-collar rather than blue-collar, because the rents on these units are still pricey....
The city housing policy requires developers to set aside 15 percent of units as affordable housing, or else pay at least $200,000 per unit to finance such housing elsewhere in the city. Boston officials said because of the steep cost of paying to build the units off-site, developers of luxury properties are increasingly choosing to host their affordable housing within their projects. Since 2000, developers have added 1,050 on-site affordable-housing units, with the Mandarin's by far the swankiest.
At the Mandarin, the middle-income tenants may live side-by-side with the wealthy. But rubbing shoulders with them throughout the complex may be a bit out of their price range. A hydrotherapy bath and massage session at the Mandarin's spa runs about $200, and the veal loin at one of its fancy restaurants, Asana, is $42 a plate.
Indeed, the proximity of so much expensive living doesn't hold an allure for some residents.
"I don't think a family would want to live at the Mandarin," said 40-year-old Rohan Dixon, who works for the beverage firm Lenox-Martell Inc., and was cleaning beer taps at a bar across the street. "You are going to find yourself in so much debt."
As well as elite richers making fun of you and laughing at you behind your back.
They can keep their palaces; toilets all smell the same.
