Friend of mine did something similar in San Francisco. Got a low-work part time job that paid in the affordable housing range for a year or two; he had accrued

Friend of mine did something similar in San Francisco. Got a low-work part time job that paid in the affordable housing range for a year or two; he had accrued a large down payment; and he managed to win the BMR lottery. Bought a place in North Beach, tripled or quadrupled his income the following year. That makes it sound a lot more cynical than it actually was--he originally chose the badly paying job for the lifestyle it allowed him--but it's definitely an abuse of a system that doesn't even function well when it's not being abused.