Brandon Residence

First about me: I’m a well manned 5-​star professional woman.
I hope you do not need hand soap in the bathroom and like the smell of cigarettes because that’s what u get when u sit in the lounge
I was not popular at the Brandon even though I tried to make friends, was kind/​polite/​generous/​and communicative with the residents and the front desk and others who worked at the Brandon. I was not always treated with the same respect but I have to say the most push back I got was from the residents. I was disappointed when I learned the hard way how aggressive and strategic a lot of the women were at the Brandon (some of them waiting on the edge of their Single Occupancy Room beds waiting for you to fail in the big city so they could pounce on you with their prison tactics). There is a group of bullying cowards that live here so know that if you decide to live at The Brandon. The people who work here really don’t respond to any complaints possibly because they are unprofessional with a low standard of ethics. Seems ironic since they work at a non-​profit but this is the world we live in.
Neat concept for living in the city for affordable price. Some quirky personalities-​some problematic residents. a lot of talented people come and go. Pretty clean, food includes fresh salad bar every evening. Rooms are decent but no AC. Neighborhood is okay– mix of worker/​professional/​family. Train 2.5−3 blocks away. I thought the whole thing was pretty cool but it’s not– you should just stay away. This place is bad news. The public facing staff is constantly playing the victim card and or finicky about what exactly their job is and doesn’t respond to complaints about residents who behave inappropriately.
There are some of the unfortunate parts of living at the Brandon like bullies and lack of communication from the company regarding changes but you just can’t let them break your spirit. There are things and practices at the Brandon that are not advertised on the web, pamphlets, nor application that are kind of big like the half or so dozen men on some sort of ALCOHOL or NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS program who reside in the building. If you become demanding at all they won’t thank you for that and act like you are getting between them and getting out of the brandon. Some of the men and some of the maintenance cleaning men will stare at your body if you’re wearing a dress etc. or try to flirt with you. Some of the men are very nice but some of them impose themselves on you. Some are as old as an adult child’s father. They will even go as far as asking you to go out. The old long term residents encourage the men to do this as a passive aggressive way of the old women asserting themselves that they don’t have to «protect you». This is after the old women residents make demands on you and complain to you constantly as part of their plan to put you into submission. After you help them and yield to their demands of living by their standards in the common areas is when they throw you under the bus. Typical bully/​coward maneuver. You may ask why is a bully a coward: because they try to humiliate you in front of others to boost their egos. At least one of the staff admin goes along with the bullying all to easily by lying straight to your face and trying to get you to agree or be silent in objecting to the obvious inaccuracy. Also harassment from older residents happens daily as well as being followed into the bathroom by residents so they can listen to your bathroom habits and hold it against you later (body shaming) or include it in their gossip. One resident even invited one of the maintenance into the bathroom when I was in plain view. I said «excuse me I’m using the bathroom» and the angry old lady said very matter of fact «well they have work to do» which would be fine but he’s a man and I don’t want a man in the bathroom when I am using it. seems some of the old residents harbor a lot of bad feelings so they try to put them on new residents by causing issues in the bathroom, complaining to you, and refusing to be hygienic. One older resident lives right outside of one of the bathrooms which consist of stalled toilets, sinks, and stalled showers. The entrance door is open during the day so when she hears you using the facilities she comes out into the hallways to see, feel, and listen. Sometimes she follows into the bathroom tugs on stall doors if someone is inside, makes comments out loud, or uses the sinks. She rarely uses the bathroom for personal hygiene which leads me to believe she just is trying to harass people from using the bathroom. This is a big problem because NYC is dirty and you sometimes want to shower 2x a day just to keep clean but the old woman dissuades people from using the bathroom on her floor outside of her room. That is the best way I can explain it. Except your paying over $ 1,100 or more a month to live there.
You may witness residents die if you stay there long enough. The company posts signs up when someone d

No wi-​fi in the rooms. So on those nights when you just want to cuddle up and watch Netflix. not happening. The accommodations aren’t great, but you can’t expect them to be: community bathrooms, twin beds.
They feed you breakfast and dinner which is nice. However, it’s completely hit or miss. Sometimes pretty okay. Sometimes kind of gross.
Some of the guests are characters. It’s kind of wacky place.
BUT, it’s in a nice, safe neighborhood within walking distance to plenty of places. A block to the train.
I would recommend it if you’re not picky and not a homebody.

My stay at the Brandon in 2012 was dreadful! I booked my stay and received email confirmation. When I arrived I was told that I had not paid the deposit which meant that I had to dig through my luggage for the receipt. It was, of course, their mistake (according to a substantial number of residents, they were greeted with the same routine of either lost payments or lost reservations. Moreover, management of this place seemed to lose every payment that I made until I told them that I would charge them a fee to prove I had made the payment. Then miraculously, they were able to keep track of what I paid).
I was placed in a small dingy room that had not been thoroughly cleaned for some time. The floors and furniture were fine but the walls were filthy and the amount of dust on the ceiling fan was incredible. I was forced to change rooms twice to issues that management had booking rooms. This again is typical. On a regular basis, short term residents are forced to move from room to room. One poor girl was forced to move more than ten times during her stay at the Brandon (I would think in this city, you have better things to do with your time than move from room to room for accomodation. Moreover, to the most of my knowledge, the majority of room changes were required without advance notice or approval. One poor girl left town for the weekend and when she returned on Sunday discovered that she was supposed have changed rooms on Saturday.) All three rooms that I stayed in had the same inadequate cleaning issues. The final room was the worst as it was filled with cockroaches.
Two meals a day are provided but the quality of the food and the cleanliness of the facilities leave a lot to be desired. Dining tables often had food particles from the previous meals left on them. Similarly, dishes were often dirty. One girl reported that she saw one of the cooks reach into a cereal bin with an ungloved hand and start eating the cereal directly from the bin (which I believe is a health code violation). Flatware is dispensed from open containers so that many hands can touch your flatware before you take it. This is an issue as several of the long term residents clearly have hygeine problems (as demonstrated by their smell and habits — more later).
As for the adequacy of the food, it also leaves much to be desired. Only one piece of fruit is provided daily (although managment is reported to have insisted that a paid nutritionist is on staff to ensure proper food standards are met). Vegetable portions are similarly small i.e. three brussel sprouts or asparagus stems are considered a «portion» and requests for two portions are not filled. The main courses are generally greasy, bland or overcooked (or all three). Vegetarian selections are laughable in that tofu is the option of choice i.e. a tofu taco is a taco shell with tofu and nothing else; a tofu wrap is a wrap with tofu and nothing else. An alternative of grilled cheese is to be provided but 40% of the time I requested it, it was refused. Finally, by the end of the designated meal time, most entrees, sides and the salad bar are depleted with no alternate provided.
A number of long term residents live at the Brandon. Some of these women are personable but some are bat-​crap crazy (in my humble opinion). On the floors where I had rooms, I encountered one senior citizen naked repeatedly, one repeatedly digging through the trash including the recepticles for disposing of used feminine hygenie products (this person does not wash her hands and those dirty little fingers that went through the trash are also grasping the flatware that you are will be using in the dining room), one woman with incontenence would urinate on the bathroom floor and splash some water on it rather than call housekeeping (I suspect she was embarressed but resulting smell was horrible). Other women were territorial and would scream at residents for using their particular shower or toilet (one old woman would peak through the cracks in the toilet stall door to watch me use the facility — ick), Similar territoriality applied to use tables in the dining room or use of the tv room. In brief, many of these older women did not want to live in shared space and made the lives of others miserable because they shared space with them.
Staying at the Brandon in summer is «hell» in that the rooms are not air condiitioned and ventilation is inadquate, even with multiple fans, to deal with summer heat in NYC. Room temperatures cooled down to 90+ degrees at night. Resident requests to install a.c. and pay for electricity used were flatly refused. A.c. is available in the t.v. room, the dining room and the 8^th flloor longue (which does not have wifi). A.c. is also available in all of the areas where the Volunteers of America work which means the second floor, third floor and ninth floor but those areas are not open to residents. Be prepared to sweat.

I lived there in the early 1980s, but from what I see things haven’t changed all that much. The rooms are small but clean. The bathrooms are shared, but it’s nice to have someone to say «good morning» to, so I didn’t mind at all. The meals are tasty and adequate: I was able to eat my two meals and skimp on lunch. The people who worked there were friendly and management was super. I don’t remember how long I stayed, but I think their maximum is about six months? After that I was on my feet and able to move to an apartment. I’m thrilled they’re still around. What a blessing it was to find this safe, clean place to live. Oh yes, it was nice to be able to say that I lived on the «upper west side,» too!

So I haven’t lived there – but I got a tour of the facilities
pros:
— single and double rooms available
— 2 meals a day
— small kitchen — so you are still able to cook if you want to
— laundry facilities
— small room with a tv and library
— small room for dancers
— large room guests visiting
cons:
— NO INTERNET — you have to provide it yourself. however, they have wifi on the first floor.
— shared toilets, sinks, showers
— girls only
— strict food times.
— a bit old looking — bedroom, bathrooms, laundry, etc.

Sad theres no review for this place.
I stayed there for 2 weeks and it was great experience. The staff is friendly as it gets, helpful, joyful, theyre always in good mood and smiling around.
The place is well located in a beautiful building. The common area is clean and organized, people maintain it quite and friendly.
There are comfy chairs and couches so you can relax, and at night is almost a net center, because all the girls go down in your pj’s with notebooks to use the WiFi available.
They have a tv room, with a small library and a big wood table. Again the places to sit are confotable.
It has big windows so you dont feel claustrophobic, the ceiling is high and it is well heated. The only problem we had was that one day the heat went wonk and all of us spent one day cooking ourselves lol
I loved the breakfast, the guys in the kitchen are so respectful and joyful you cant be cranky in the morning. Loved the food, specially the pancakes.
I stayed in the 7^th floor, so I got a beautiful view of the street and other buildings around. The room has a decent dimension, it has space to storage your stuff, a good closet, a desk, some shelves, a good bed, a big drawer and a smaller one. The room also has a fan, but since it was January and only used it when the heat went wonk.
The hall in the floors are clean and organized. Theres 2 bathrooms per floor, and they were always clean, with papers and stuff. The shower was good too.
They have this «vintage» elevator that takes ages to come, but no problem with that, unless youre really really late.
I expect to go there again. If I go to NYC by myself Ill surely stay in Brandon, the only thing that would change my mind is that Brandon is female-​only, so if Im with my boyfriend it would be kind of impossible.