It's a typical evening with the Chouman family.
Fourteen-year-old Julia is on her phone, 16-year-old Adam is hitting the books, and 19-year-old Abraham is playing computer games.
Parents Abbas and Souraya are watching television.
But this is a not-so-typical home.
The family-of-five lives in one room, crammed into a 325-square-foot studio on W. 29th St., in Manhattan.
"It’s very uncomfortable. I’m 19, a teenager,” Abraham says.
“I just feel overwhelmed, like I can't concentrate well," Adam adds.
"It gets me really frustrated," says Julia.
We asked, does their father ever say, "Get out!"
Abbas laughs. "I would love to say that, but I can't. That's the main issue. I can't – They're my kids."
His wife interrupts: "I don't have time for myself and him. No privacy at all."
Abbas and Souraya are sitting in their 19-year-old's bed, a loveseat, in front of their bed and next to a bunk bed for their other kids. Clothes and bookbags pile up quickly. Family members trip over them, and each other.
The city's affordable housing crisis forces many New Yorkers to make difficult choices – for example, whether to live in dilapidated apartments, overspend on rent, or endure hours-long commutes.
The Choumans' living situation is an example of the extremes some New Yorkers endure when it comes to housing.
Abbas says he's entered the city's affordable housing lottery for years, without much luck. He was selected once, for a three-bedroom apartment on West 57th Street, but he declined when the city set the rent at $1,400 a month.
"It's still a good price, but I cannot pay it," he says. "I don't want to pay one month and then the second month be homeless."
Their rent-stabilized studio rents for about $1,200 a month. Abbas is disabled after working as a cab driver. Souraya earns roughly $2,000 a month as a chef. Abraham helps, too, by stocking grocery shelves while attending college.
Abbas says he's never seriously thought about moving, even as his family grew. He says the rent here was just too good. He wonders if he'll ever win the housing lottery again.
"That was my only chance to take my kids and my wife out of this misery," he says.
Misery that's taking a toll.
Julia has started to act out, Abbas worries, not coming home when she's supposed to.
"I don't really stay in here that much. I’m usually outside," she says, adding that she will stay at friends' homes. "And when I come home, I eat and take a shower and go to sleep."
"Living here is a disaster," Abbas says.
Adam worries the cramped living hurts his studies.
"I want to go to a good college, have a good career," he says. "I want to like change the way we live."
He's not talking about changing society. He's talking about saving his family.
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We know the housing crises affects New Yorkers in different ways. If you have a story, tweet at @mherzenberg.
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