[gaadd33]

$1500? Sounds like they got lucky. Streeteasy shows only 3 apartments for rent for less than $1500 and one is an SRO. (http://streeteasy.com/nyc/for-rent/downtown/rental_type:frbo...)

I'm sure you can find a really tiny non legal space in Chinatown or similar but I'm not sure I would call that a bargain.

[goldenkey]

And chinatown is chock full of roaches and rats due to the restaurants dumping cooking oil and garbage into the streets. You get what you pay for.