That is extremely illegal. It’s called constructive eviction.
Read the related stories this has everything to do with the ridiculous housing prices in New York City. One of the related stories is about a 67-year-old male nurse who had a home upstate but kept his crashpad dorm for decades because he didn’t want to fight traffic coming in and out of the city daily. The college had a deal that they could have the building from the nursing school if they kept a few dorms their for nurses. That deal ended in the ‘60s and several of the nurses just took advantage of the liberal squatters’ rights laws in New York and just didn’t leave. This “student” knows a good scam when she sees one and is doing the same thing.
WHY is it not called "theft"???
And what she is doing is not theft of services-
We live in strange times
Well fine, if you can’t change the lock on the door, just turn off the heat and electricity to her room. You’re not evicting her then, as the utility provider has no contract with her.