I took a tour of San Quentin prison once and the inmates had better digs. And they got to live there for free :-) :-). Although the NYC apts in the link are still much nicer than living aboard a military ship's berthing area with a bunch of people for months and years on end but again, it's free :-)
I like small places and would love a little place right in a city - although not NYC - but those places are bad.