Over 50% of Bronx Neighborhoods Experiencing High or Extreme Poverty

According to the Furman Center, almost 1.7 million New Yorkers were living below the poverty line between 2011 and 2015, numbers unseen since 1970.

And The Bronx leads the city with over 52% of our neighborhoods in high or extreme poverty.

Coupled with more residents that are facing homelessness and are rent burdened than any others in the city, we are facing an epic crisis in The Bronx at a time when gentrification is plowing ahead and more luxury housing is being built in the South Bronx.

This is the poorest congressional district in the nation and flooding our neighborhoods with luxury housing isn’t going to solve existing problems for existing residents.

Rather, it will solve the poverty problem by pushing out existing residents and changing the economic demographics of our neighborhoods.

The Furman Center lists several key findings of the report such as:

The poverty rate is higher in New York City than it is in the nation, especially for children and seniors.

• In New York City, 30% of children were poor in 2011-2015 compared to 22% nationally.
• About 18% of senior New Yorkers lived below the poverty line in 2011-2015, twice the national senior poverty rate of 9%.
• Poverty rates by racial and ethnic groups do not mirror national trends. In New York City, 20% of Asian New Yorkers were poor compared to 14% nationally; 22% of black New Yorkers were living below the poverty line compared to 27% nationally; 29%  of Hispanic New Yorkers were more poor compared to 25% nationally; and 12% of white New Yorkers were living below the poverty line compared to 11% nationally.

Between 2006-2010 and 2011-2015, over 17% of neighborhoods saw a 10 percentage point increase in their poverty rate.

• 64 neighborhoods in New York City (home to 2.6% of the population – about 216,000 New Yorkers) saw a decrease in their poverty rate of 10 percentage points or more; 356 neighborhoods (home to 16.5% of the population – about 1,366,000 New Yorkers) experienced an increase in their poverty rates of 10 percentage points or more.

Neighborhood conditions vary significantly based on the level of poverty in a neighborhood. Higher poverty neighborhoods have higher violent crime rates, poorer performing schools, and fewer adults who are college educated.

• In 2011-2015, high- and extreme-poverty neighborhoods experienced more than three times as much serious violent crime as low-poverty neighborhoods (7.5 serious violent crimes per 1,000 residents versus 2.2 serious violent crimes per 1,000 residents).
• 52% of residents aged 25 or older in low-poverty neighborhoods had a college degree compared to 13% in extreme-poverty areas.

Poor black and Hispanic New Yorkers are much more likely to live in higher poverty neighborhoods than poor white and Asian New Yorkers.

• Over half of poor black and poor Hispanic New Yorkers lived in a high- or extreme-poverty neighborhood in 2011-2015. About 23 percent of poor Asian New Yorkers and about 30 percent of poor white New Yorkers lived in a high- or extreme-poverty neighborhood in 2011-2015.
• While more than half of fourth grade students in 2014 performed at grade level in math in low poverty neighborhoods, a quarter or less were at grade level in schools in high- and extreme-poverty neighborhoods.  There are similar disparities for English language tests.

Children are more likely to live in higher poverty neighborhoods than adults or seniors.

• 30% of all children in New York City lived in a high- or extreme-poverty neighborhood in 2011-2015. 54.1% of poor children in New York City lived in a high- or extreme-poverty neighborhood in 2011-2015.
• Children were the least likely to live in low poverty neighborhoods (21% of children live in a low-poverty neighborhood).

Read the full report