A German couple living in New York gets kicked out of their apartment. They take the setback and turn it into an incredible adventure.
By Janine Gürtler
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The letter pulled the rug out from under them. When Christina Horsten and Felix Zeltner came back from the hospital to their home on the Upper East Side with their newborn Emma, the dismissal notice for their lease was already in the mailbox. The owner of their home wasn’t too much into crying babies and kicked them out without batting an eyelash. All of a sudden, the German couple, both journalists living and working since 2012 in New York, was homeless.
Five years have passed since their lives so drastically fell apart. Today, however, they published a book about their adventure and Christina Horsten says: “To get the bum‘s rush was the best thing that could have happened to us.”
The bitter beginning of this story turned out to be the catalyst for one of the most exciting chapters in their lives. Within 13 months, they would voluntarily move 14 times. Their plan was to live each month in a new neighborhood of New York, get to know the people and the vibe of the area – before moving on. “Our families in Germany told us we were crazy,” Zeltner recalls. Their New York friends, on the other hand, were rooting for the idea from the start.
“Our families in Germany told us we were crazy.”
House-hunting in hell
Of course, there was a catch: The Big Apple is one of the toughest, most ruthless rental markets in the world. An apartment of 277 square feet in Manhattan is rent for $1,500, on average, according to the real estate platform Rentcafé. How on earth would a family with a now toddler find a new place every month, let alone for a price they can pay?
“We got into this with so much naivety, thinking that we could book all the flats for the entire year upfront on Airbnb,” Horsten says, laughing. Except that almost all offers were expensive and looked dreadful in the pictures. But then they found the “Listings Project,” a newsletter where mostly artists and musicians would sublet their place whenever they were not in town for a while, often for below-market rent.
The first stop for these rental nomads is Long Island City. The offer came from a friend, an entrepreneur, who let them stay in his modern townhouse for a month, free of rent. Although the young family enjoyed the comfort, they didn’t stay longer. “There were just too many other places we still wanted to explore in New York,” says Horsten.
World trip in twelve districts
So they moved to Chinatown. Flashing neon signs with Chinese characters line up one next to the other, street traders sell Durian fruits – an Asian delicacy, grocery stores with fish tanks make you feel like you’re visiting an aquarium. Here, the couple found a hidden loft and an affordable kindergarten for Emma. “That alone was worth the effort,” says Zeltner. The family moves on, but they continue to bring Emma to the kindergarten in Chinatown. They live in hip Williamsburg, in Little Italy, in Harlem. “You could say that we moved from China to West Africa,” says the 36-year-old Zeltner. It is a world trip in twelve districts.
“You could say that we moved from China to West Africa.”
Whenever they move to a new “home”, the two journalists dig for any information about the area they can find through the internet, newspaper, and blogs. They also open their door for a neighborhood dinner in each flat. Every time one is coming up, Horsten recalls, she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, fearing that no one will show up. But every time, the living room is crowded – and the guests are eager to tell them more about their area. “New Yorkers are really proud of their neighborhood and they have so much to tell,” Horsten says.
Unfortunately, in Brooklyn, they get unmercifully brought back to earth.
When the couple is about to move into their fourth apartment in Sunset Park, an elderly man opens the door. Not only is he the actual tenant, but he also never heard of the alleged landlord. It turns out, the con man had simply added a “W” for West in the rental agreement – and therefore created a fantasy address that never existed. By then, Zeltner had already paid $1,400 in rent. They get the money back eventually, but emotionally they hit rock bottom. “That was one of the moments when we were simply overwhelmed with the logistics and psychologically exhausted,” Horsten says. “We asked ourselves, why we were doing this to ourselves?”
Strangers become friends
What keeps them going through those months of emotional rollercoaster rides is the people they get to know. In Harlem, their new neighbors stick a two-page print-out on their door, full of insider tips for restaurants, trips and the peculiarities of the area. In Washington Heights, they live with Kurt, a Minnesota-born bookseller, and writer, who never attended school but instead accumulated his impressive wealth of knowledge by simply reading the 15,000 pieces of literature surrounding him. And they get to know one of the last tenants of Chelsea Hotel, an old couple fighting for more than seven years for their home which is being turned into a luxury hotel.
By the end of their journey, the family not only got to know New York in a completely new way but also the people in their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the time of their next moving seems to be far away. Their new home, a small apartment on the chic Upper West Side, is far from a bargain. But it has become a beloved shelter where the family wants to stay longer. Only the now four-year-old Emma would like to move again, Zeltner reveals. “She thinks it’s boring here.”
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