Given the absence of other data, I’d say the lack of consequences is the driver.

https://www.macrotrends.net/4694/new-york-city-area-unemploy...

NYC even before covid was renter friendly and difficult to evict, so things must have taken quite the turn.

Which sucks because—and the essay doesn’t specify—rent stabilized apartments remain one of the few ways for lower income to make it into the middle class.

It’s not all pleasant (mice and cockroaches measured in inches) but it’s what allowed me to save, invest, and get out.