Clinton deploys ‘couch-surfing’ army in Brooklyn fashion centre
Candidate learned tough lesson from disastrous 2008 campaign
New York — Hillary Clinton’s decision to locate her campaign headquarters in fashionable Brooklyn has given staffers and volunteers a major headache — how to find accommodation in one of the country’s most inflated housing markets.
The campaign is running a spare-room or couch-surfing service, pairing donors with its young army of workers who need a bed for the night.
The scheme is part necessity, part branding exercise for a wealthy politician frequently derided as out of touch with ordinary Americans.
One recent email put it bluntly: “Do you have a spare room — or just a spare couch! — where a new staffer could stay? You and I both know that finding a place to live in New York can take longer than an afternoon of apartment hunting.
“These folks will be working long days, so they really just need a place to sleep, and they’ll be so grateful to be staying with someone who shares their beliefs and their goals.”
Clinton’s run for the White House is based over two floors of an office block in Brooklyn Heights. Cynics suggested it was part of an attempt to gain a hipper image by picking New York’s most fashionable borough.
Finding a shoebox sized apartment for less than $2,000 US a month is a challenge. For those on a more modest budget, it means scouting locations deeper into Brooklyn, in neighbourhoods that have yet to get an artisan coffee shop — or apartment hopping using the Clinton Campaign’s host-a-staffer service.
Jasmin Harris, 22, stayed with a middle-aged couple in their Brooklyn Heights apartment for six weeks, until they needed their spare room.
“I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I’ll be somewhere else tonight,” she told The New York Times. “I have my bags packed and am waiting for an email.”
It is not the only money-saving element of the campaign. Workers have been told to take the bus wherever possible. That is in part to keep costs down during the primary campaign when donations are limited to $2,700 per person, but also to show lessons have been learned from the disastrous 2008 run when Clinton was seen as the high-spending Washington insider upended by Barack Obama’s shoestring insurgents.
However, it leaves Clinton with a dilemma — whether or not to take her usual summer break in the Hamptons, where a holiday home can cost $200,000 a month.