First came the mosquitoes, then came the hipsters—what will ruin the Rockaways next? Oh, right, the addicts and destitute residents that have been there for years. more ›

The three-alarm Brooklyn fire that claimed the lives of two men in a three-story building on Covert Street was apparently started by a hot plate. Fire officials said it seemed that a hot plate was used near a bed; NBC New York reports, "Instead of calling 911 when the fire was sparked around 9:15 p.m. Friday, the occupant using the hot plate tried to smother the fire with bedding and sheets -- further spreading the flames." more ›

A discontent tenant fatally stabbed his building super when he came to collect the rent on Friday. Super Shayne Sinclair was collecting overdue rent at a single room occupancy building on E. 51st Street in Flatlands when he was stabbed by the unidentified killer. "Somebody owed him some money and that's what he was trying to get. He left home to go look for a paycheck and he's dead now," a relative of Sinclair's told the News. more ›

The city has been cracking down on Single Room Occupancy [SRO] buildings that operate as illegal tourist hotels. But the crackdown has caused an uproar on the Upper West Side, where the owner of The Hotel Alexander has decided to turn the seven-floor building on West 94th Street into a 200-bed shelter for homeless men. At a protest outside the building yesterday, politicians rallied against the plan, demanding that the building be used for low-income housing, not a homeless shelter. more ›

Upper West Side residents are up in arms over the forthcoming homeless invasion of Manhattan, and they're not just going to sit complacently and watch their change and their sidewalks disappear. Concerned residents packed into a meeting last night at Community Board 7 to protest a planned homeless facility on West 94th Street, which they believe could be the tipping point that turns the Upper West Side into San Francisco. "It feels like a recurring nightmare to many of us. You're trying to convert it back to the 1970s," said Amanda Larrick, according to DNAinfo. Get out your tiny violins, because we're gonna have us a hoedown! more ›

Yesterday morning, firefighters responded to a suspicious fire in a two-story house in the West Farms section of the Bronx which left eight people injured, including a 22 -year-old woman and her 2-year-old son who were found unconscious in a basement apartment. Now it turns out the woman was being threatened by a former tenant, who allegedly sent a text message saying the victim "better sleep with one eye open." more ›

Dean Meminger, the former Knicks great nicknamed "The Dream," is in a burn unit at Jacobi Hospital after suffering injuries from a four-alarm fire in the Bronx. The Fire Department is continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze, after reports that crack pipes were found in a building where the fire was started—and some of the crack pipes may have been in Meminger's rented room. more ›

Ah, the Flophouse—the sink of sin, the graveyard of virtue, the haunt of the degenerate and the roost of the bandit. And also a great way to save money. The Jacob Riis photo at left documents what was called "Five Cent Lodging" on Bayard Street. Try finding something similar in Chinatown now. SRO numbers have been trending downward historically. But we're told that the Single Room Occupancy or Rooming House format—the modern code for flophouse—may have a future yet. more ›