For the Cheapest Room in Town, Get Thee to a Nunnery

If it's midnight in Chelsea, tenants of nun-run Jeanne D'Arc women's residence must sign in with the guard on duty. That may be a small concession for a furnished room on West 24th Street for $345 per month, but it's hardly the only diktat on the books at the century-old boardinghouse, where 140 mostly young, foreign-born women live.

While there is no curfew at Jeanne D'Arc, guests are not permitted beyond the lobby, and there is "no noise of any kind" allowed on boarding floors after 11 p.m., according to the resident handbook. Other possible pitfalls of living in one of Jeanne D'Arc's fraction-of-market-rate rooms: communal kitchens, bathrooms, and dining rooms, and periodic room checks. Messy bedrooms beget notes from nuns, according to a resident who said she recently received a note reading: "Your room is in desperate need of a cleaning."

Still, the price is right — and Jeanne D'Arc almost always has between 30 and 40-names on the waiting list.

The six-story brick residence is one of a fast-shrinking breed of women-only group homes, which once peppered New York City. Next month, the Salvation Army will close permanently its Parkside Evangeline women's residence, with real estate developers expected to pay more than $100 million for its Gramercy Park building site.

In 2000, the Ladies Christian Union sold two women-only residential hotels — in Murray Hill and Greenwich Village — to Yeshiva University and the New School, respectively. Twelve years earlier, the renowned Barbizon Hotel for Women closed down, and that Upper East Side building is now home to luxury condominiums. Among those remaining are El Carmelo in Greenwich Village and Centro Maria Residence in Midtown, both administered by Catholic orders, and the Webster Apartments in Murray Hill, run by an independent nonprofit organization. Rooms rent for about $200 a week.

Then, of course, there's Jeanne D'Arc. It houses a small Catholic chapel, and the residence is adorned throughout with crucifixes, and statues of its namesake, Joan of Arc, among other Christian iconography. Residents, who come from a variety of faiths, can also leave written prayers — and the nuns will pray on their behalf.

Opened in 1896 by a Catholic priest, with the help of a New York philanthropist, Jeanne D'Arc was intended to be a temporary home base for poor, French immigrant women. Early on, Catholic sisters are said to have traveled by horsedrawn carriage to the southern tip of Manhattan, picking up immigrants who had recently arrived in America via Ellis Island.

These days, when there's a vacancy, would-be residents generally arrive for their entrance interviews via subway.

All prospective tenants must make it past Sister Marlene Rust, Jeanne D'Arc's jovial, gray-haired, one-lady co-op board of sorts. As the home's administrator, Sister Marlene said she looks for young women of modest means — in New York to further their careers or education. Many residents are full-time students, holding down full-time jobs, she said.

A would-be resident must provide employer and character references and a doctor's letter stating that she does not have a communicable disease. If everything checks out, Sister Marlene may offer a room to the applicant.

Room rents cover building expenses in the unsubsidized residence. "Our living is simple," Sister Marlene said. "You get a bed and a dresser; you are provided with the basic necessities of life: heat, water, and electricity."

A resident, Johanna Jacobson took one look at her narrow room, and was sure all of her belongings would not fit inside. The 26-year-old executive assistant has managed with several hanging shoe bags and a small armoire that zips shut. "People say, ‘Are you kidding me?' They think it's weird that I live in a nunnery," Ms. Jacobson said.

Having heard about Jeanne D'Arc from a friend, Ms. Jacobson applied for a room shortly after moving to New York from Varberg, Sweden last year. She said that while residence is "peaceful," and the price is unbeatable, she misses hosting friends — and having her own bathroom.

A 27-year-old waitress, Tina Starrie, moved to Jeanne D'Arc about four years ago — and said she enjoys the camaraderie of the group-home setting. "It's hard not being able to have visitors, but the low rent compensates for that," Ms. Starrie, who grew up in various Canadian cities, said. "I've been able to save money, which almost doesn't happen in New York City."

Applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 40, and tenants can stay no longer than a decade. A few elderly women, who lived in Jeanne D'Arc prior to those rules being enacted in 1997, have been allowed to remain at the facility. Current residents range in age from 20 to 87, and hail from every continent, except Antarctica. Single rooms at Jeanne D'Arc start at $345 and go up to $495 a month, depending on their size. A handful of double rooms rent for $305 a month.