The more I read your post, the more I don’t understand what the hell you’re talking about. Cheap housing in lower Manhattan? Unless you’ve been there for 40 years and are rent stabilized, there is no cheap housing anywhere in Manhattan. What artistes are doing, as well as students, are doubling and tripling up in apartments and splitting up the rent. Many of the old tenements are being renovated so that the landlords can jack up the rent. Rich idiots? Do you mean the corrupt Russians who have crashed into my town?
There is relatively cheap housing in the East Village if you know where to look. Not always safe and usually not legal but that is the nature of the place and people who live on the edge.