At the beginning of the millennium, the internet cafe was a beacon of the future.  But now, amid a lack of affordable housing and a surge in homelessness in New York City, these vestiges of the dot-com boom have become an unlikely safety net. People pay as little as $7 a night for a roof over their heads. On any given evening in the few remaining 24-hour cyber cafes in Manhattan’s Chinatown, chairs are filled with exhausted bodies.  People have lived there for weeks or months — or by some accounts, even years.  

​

Related Article