Data Reveal Threats to Affordable Housing Across NYC Neighborhoods

The Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development released its annual data graphic report Thursday revealing six Bronx community districts face threats to losing varied types of affordable housing. The report catalogs the risks to affordable housing in each of the city’s 59 community districts, looking at factors like overcrowding, evictions, foreclosure notices and how many residents are rent burdened, among other indicators.

The ANHD graphic lends insight into how the affordability crisis exhibits itself based on borough and housing stock. The graphic also can be used as a starting point for examining the particular vulnerabilities of neighborhoods that the de Blasio administration has targeted for rezonings.

The University Heights and Fordham neighborhoods in the Bronx, home to the 2018 Jerome Avenue rezoning, is facing the highest threat to its affordable housing, followed by five other Bronx community districts (Mott Haven/Melrose, Morrisania/Crotona, Highbridge/South Concourse, Belmont/East Tremont and Kingsbridge Heights/Bedford), according to the report. In Brooklyn, East New York/Starret City, Brownsville and East Flatbush are most at risk, while threats to affordable housing in Manhattan are greatest in Central Harlem, the rankings found. In Queens, Jamaica and Hollis are the most vulnerable neighborhoods, according to findings.

While the report deemed no neighborhoods in Staten Island as particularly at risk, it notes that Stapleton and St. George are home to 66 units enrolled in the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, which are set to expire between 2020 and 2024. This is also an area facing a rezoning, expected to be certified this year under the city’s affordable housing plan.

In the report, the University Heights and Fordham neighborhoods in the Bronx— where Jerome Avenue was rezoned last year—has the highest number of residents who are rent-burdened, defined as households that pay more than 30 percent of income towards gross rent, with an estimated 64.4 percent of tenants. The second most rent-burdened neighborhood is Borough Park in Brooklyn, with 64.3 percent, a a number ANHD called “shocking.”

Another finding from the report was severe overcrowding: The highest rate was found in the Queens neighborhoods of Elmhurst and Corona, where 11.7 percent of renter households are severely crowded (defined as 1.5 or more occupants per room). The second highest was Borough Park, where 10.7 percent of households are overcrowded.

The report also highlighted East Harlem, another neighborhood which was rezoned under the de Blasio administration’s affordable housing plan in 2017, where building prices are rising rapidly and “speculation is putting pressure on tenants,” the report says. East Harlem saw the biggest jump in property prices per square foot  — approximately 75.8 percent— and the neighborhood is among the top ten communities in New York City for income inequality, according to the data.

The report also found a high concentration of housing violations in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick and Sunset Park. Bushwick is slated for a rezoning this year, the draft proposal for which the city released this week.

For homeowners, ANHD found that home foreclosures have remained a huge risk, with the highest rates in Brownsville, followed by East New York. In Queens, Jamaica and Hollis were second highest neighborhoods at risk for foreclosure.

The data report can be read in full here.