Polyamory may not be for me, but it works for plenty of people — and if you’re polyamorous and live in New York, I've got good news: The city is now home to an apartment building focused on creating a haven for people in relationships with multiple consenting partners.
Located on Troutman St. in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, Hacienda Villa is a three-story, 15-bedroom apartment building that caters specifically to adults in polyamorous relationships. Leon Feingold, the realtor of the building as well as the co-founder of poly-friendly group Open Love NY, noted to the New York Daily News that the “free love” household already houses three tenants; four more are moving in shortly. Each of the three floors is a separate apartment with anywhere between four and six 100- to 200-square foot bedrooms. The rooms range from $750 to $1,500, with the price depending on the size of the room and whether it has its own private bathroom. The building also has its own hot tub, gazebo, and wet bar — features that would make any NYC resident want to sign a lease for it.
Although a rather depressing number of media outlets are calling Hacienda Villa a “love shack” and a “swinger's apartment” (New York Post and Daily Caller, I’m looking at you), Feingold is adamant that the building is anything but. “It’s not a sex-fest,” he told the Daily News. “It’s not a place to come and get your freak on. It’s a place to come home to.” All potential renters will have to be verified by an existing member of the polyamorous community in order to keep the building a judgment-free zone. "The only requirement in addition to financial security to be able to rent a room here," Feingold further elaborated to CBS New York, "is that you commit to understanding that other people who will be living there may have different lifestyles, or different opinions, and you have to be accepting of that." The house’s first resident, a 40-year-old scientific researcher named Lily who had her first poly experience two years ago, remarked to the Daily News, “I’m really happy and safe knowing I’m going to be in a place where people are really wise and understand the community.”
Open Love NY is a New York-based organization that provides a safe space for the polyamorous community, as well as coordinates educational and social events for its members geared towards “fostering a public climate in which all forms of consensual adult relationship choices are respected and honored.” Find out more at the Open Love NY website.
Image: hehaden/Flickr
