low rent

low-rent

1. Literally, not costing much to rent. Typically used before a noun. There is a serious shortage of low-rent accommodation in the city, which has led to a homelessness crisis unlike anything we've seen before. The university is converting some of its derelict properties into low-rent offices and studio apartments.
2. Very cheap or inferior in quality. You can tell these toys are just low-rent knockoffs of the original. The studio became infamous for pumping out low-rent horror films several times a year.
3. Having low moral and social standards. He planned the whole operation, then hired a couple low-rent goons to do the dirty work for him. What does some low-rent junkie like you know about an honest day's work?
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

low rent

1. n. a low person; someone without grace or spirit. (Also a rude term of address.) Look, low rent, where is what you owe me?
2. mod. cheap; unfashionable. This place is strictly low rent.
See also: low, rent
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • low-rent
  • get behind on (something)
  • fall behind on (something)
  • (it) wouldn't bother me any
  • for rent
  • rent
  • like gold dust
  • on the fringe
  • you pay your money, and you take your choice
  • you pays your money, and you takes your choice
References in classic literature
Everybody, he assured her, was well off in Lowick: not a cottager in those double cottages at a low rent but kept a pig, and the strips of garden at the back were well tended.
LARKANA -- A group of Hindu community members on Sunday held a demonstration in front of the Bhuttos mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bukhsh Bhutto against the Larkana Hindu Panchayat for handing over portion of a Gaushala (cows abode) to some influential figures and favourite traders on low rent.
Dwellings will be for both sale and rent (a third will be set aside for low rent social housing) and the project includes small workshops and studios with communal facilities such as cafe, nursery and health centre.
The nine member board voted for a proposed 4 percent hike in one-year leases and 6 percent for two-year leases, along with a low rent supplement of $15 for those units renting for less than $500.
There is also a low rent supplement of $15 for apartments renting for $500 or less and a minimum rent of $215, equivalent to the welfare shelter allowance for one person.
"This was a tremendous property with considerable upside potential, given the relatively low rent levels of some of the existing tenants," said Robert A.
No vacancy factor was approved by the nine-member board, and the same low rent supplement was proposed for those stabilized apartments where the current rent is less than $450.
New leases are calculated using a new formula that can increase rents on a two-year lease by 20 percent and has other low rent supplements and increases based on the length of the previous tenancy.
While the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) has voted increases of two percent and four percent for new one- and two-year leases respectively, an RGB-approved low rent supplement of $15 for apartments renting for less than $450 (provided the new rent plus guidelines increases does not go over $465), as well as a 5 percent sublet allowance and a two percent increase for rooming house units, are under legal attack by tenants.
The low rent supplement has been changed to $15 for rents of $400 or less, however, it can only be charged if the resulting rent is $415 or less, including the guidelines increase.
"Over the past 30 years, New York City lost nearly half of its low rent, private housing through abandonment, arson and foreclosure.