Pros:
Better than being homeless.
Cons:
Everything in the building is extremely cheap and on the verge of falling apart. There are holes in the floor, pieces of metal peeling off of heating grates, holes in the brick at the exterior of the building which allow rats and roaches easy access to our kitchen, tiles falling off the walls in the bathroom, graffiti in hallways, and something that looks like fire damage in the hallway outside our door which, rather than being repaired, was simply painted over. The common areas of the building have a persistent bad smell, and are rarely, if ever, cleaned. It's hard to describe how bad this smell is. It's like mold and cat piss. Two of the three bedrooms in our apartment face into the building's air shaft, which has this smell as well, meaning that the only way to ventilate the space is to let in the stink.
Management is somewhat responsive to repair requests, but their "fixes" are done extremely poorly and haphazardly. Months ago, we requested that someone fix bathroom tiles that had fallen off of the wall, revealing previously unseen mold. The repair person sent by management glued the tiles back on to the wall using superglue, which was not wiped off properly and is now stuck to the surrounding tiles. During previous tile repairs, caulk was spilled all over our shampoo and conditioner and left to dry. No mold testing was ever done. In November, a rat chewed through the wall in our kitchen and got into our pantry. It took them until last month to patch the hole, despite repeated emails to them, and multiple people coming to our apartment to "fix" it. There is water damage to the ceiling of our bathroom that management refuses to address the root cause of, resulting in holes that appear every few weeks. There's been a hole in the ceiling for the past week that management has yet to fix despite the fact that they are currently showing this apartment to prospective tenants. Several months ago, cleaners sent by management emptied the basement (who knows what was in there) and left about 30 bags of trash piled outside the front of the building. I had to call 311 multiple times over the course of a week before these were removed.
Management is extremely shady. We have no idea who our landlord is: we cannot get a last name for anyone we have been in contact with, their business address is likely fake, and the only phone number I've been able to get for them is connected to another management company, KNG. I suspect that Spencer and KNG are shell companies operated by the same people. Check out the reviews for KNG and Full Time Management (which also appears to be run by these people) for other testimony as to how bad these people are.
Outside of the apartment itself, the block is hell: more rats, roaches, trash on the street, and loud music at all hours of the day.
PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT LIVE HERE.
Advice to owner:
Repent.