December 2003 A Report by Make the Road by Walking, Inc. 301 Grove Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237 phone: (718) 418-7690 fax: (718) 418-9635
MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING Make the Road by Walking promotes collective action and expands opportunities for selfdetermination among residents of Bushwick, Brooklyn, through: Collaborative Learning that enables people to advocate effectively for themselves, to share ideas and experiences, to analyze the root causes of the problems we face, and to strategize about how we can take action together to resolve these problems. Participants in our community education activities develop the skills necessary to work effectively in a way that values the voice, perspective and contribution of every person. Organizing and Activism to build a stronger community, to make neighborhood institutions subject to democratic community control, to mobilize resistance to systematic class, race, and gender oppression, and to generate vibrant cultural activity that celebrates and reflects upon the experiences of the Bushwick community. A Community of Support to provide badly-needed services to community residents, to draw people into our educational and organizing activities, and to affirm an ethic of cooperation, mutual help, dignity, and animo. THIS SIDE OF POVERTY: BUSHWICK S HOUSING CRISIS A REPORT BY MAKE THE ROAD BY WALKING In 2003, Make the Road by Walking began canvassing Bushwick homes to identify the gravity of housing problems suffered by neighborhood residents. Surveyors knocked on more than 216 doors, interviewed more than 340 residents in over 44 buildings. The results of these personal interviews and surveys provided an empirical and experiential context with which to understand data retrieved from the 2000 U.S. Census, Department of City Planning, NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey and The State of New York City s Housing and Neighborhoods 2002. Unless noted otherwise, the statistical data cited throughout this report draws from The State of New York City s Housing and Development 2002 s compilations derived from the aforementioned sources. The combined results presented such a grim picture of Bushwick s housings woes, that Make the Road by Walking decided to publish this report, This Side of Poverty: Bushwick s Housing Crisis, to draw attention to the state of Bushwick s housing. All percentages in this survey are rounded to the nearest tenth or nearest hundredth. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Make the Road by Walking would like to thank the many community residents who joined project organizers in door-knocking and interviewing Bushwick residents. We would also like to thank the Center for Third World Organizing and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, without whom this report would not have been possible. 2
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS In Bushwick, Brooklyn, a survey of over 340 residents in 44 buildings comprising of over 216 units found that: 71% of respondents have filed a complaint against their landlord with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the city agency charged with housing code enforcement. Among respondents who reported filing a complaint, 24% stated that their complaint was never addressed. Based on our data from respondents, when adjusted to represent the population of Bushwick, we estimate that there are 6,060 unaddressed complaints about housing code violations in Bushwick every year. Among respondents who reported that their complaint was addressed: 31% stated that it took over two weeks for the condition to be fixed. 19% stated that it took over two months for the condition to be fixed. 14% of respondents have found it necessary to bring civil actions against their landlord. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: A new report titled Inequitable Enforcement: The Crisis of Housing Code Enforcement in New York demonstrates that lax code enforcement has allowed housing conditions to worsen in NYC s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. A new code enforcement proposal endorsed by Make the Road by Walking and the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), Intro 400-A, targets code enforcement in low-income neighborhoods. Intro 400-A would: provide tenants with the right to receive a comprehensive inspection of their building, known as roof-to-cellar inspections, from the HPD; require inspectors to record all violations without distinction between emergency and nonemergency violations; mandate that any hazardous condition under other codes or regulations must be addressed; and give all tenants the right to receive a copy of the violation report. In sum, Intro 400-A will improve housing code enforcement by bringing about much needed improvements to the code enforcement system. 3
HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Bushwick has a total population of 120,710 people living in 36,121 households. Bushwick s average household size is 3.2, which is the largest household size of any community district in New York City. A crowded household is defined as a household with more than 1.5 persons per room. i Under this definition, Bushwick is a very crowded neighborhood with 8-10% of households qualifying as crowded. ii Moreover, these statistics are likely to under-represent the gravity of overcrowding due to the large foreign-born population living in Bushwick, over 40,000 people in Bushwick alone, who under-report undocumented foreign-born residents out of fear of deportation or reprisal. Bushwick home ownership rates (13.9%) are among the lowest in New York City, and are well below the New York City average (30.2%). In 1999, Bushwick had no cooperative apartments, no Mitchell-Lama Coops and no condominiums. Cooperatives and condominiums are forms of homeownership that can help mitigate displacement of longstanding residents, ensure housing repairs, and instill a sense of community and goodwill in the neighborhood. In 1999, the rent regulation status of the rental housing units in Bushwick were as follows: Rent Controlled: 3.9% Rent Stabilize: 54.9% Other Regulated iii : 17.3% Unregulated: 23.8% Bushwick has only 0.7% of all public housing units in New York City with 1,315 public units, or 3.9% of all units in Bushwick. Bushwick has substantially less public housing than other impoverished community districts in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and other parts of Brooklyn. iv We went to court with HPD to get a 7A administrator. A 7A administrator is a court-appointed administrator that maintains buildings that are abandoned by their owners or that have conditions dangerous to a tenant s health, safety and life. Nobody told us that we could also get together and form a tenant coop in these situations. We went to all the meetings and we still didn t know we could take control of the building to avoid another slumlord from collecting our rent. The meetings were a fiasco. I went to one with about 300 people, it was in a very small room, and they went through everything really fast. Whenever we wanted to ask questions they would brush us off. Most of the people in my apartment only speak Spanish yet there were no forms in Spanish. After all our efforts we have nothing to show for it. HPD says that despite our participation, we can t form a coop. If we can t form a coop then I Rehabilitation of the existing housing stock in Bushwick proceeded at a lower rate than other impoverished areas with similar housing problems in New York City. Unlike certain areas in the Bronx v and Manhattan vi that enjoyed more intensive rehabilitative efforts on the part of New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, rehabilitation of occupied in rem housing units in Bushwick through New York City Capital Programs (1987-2001) totaled 576 units, a mere 1.73% of existing units. Rehabilitation of occupied privately-owned housing units through New York City Capital Programs (1987-2001) lagged behind other depressed areas of Bronx vii and Manhattan viii as well. The total number of units totaled 631, only 1.9% of existing units. These figures indicate inattention to Bushwick s housing woes and a lack of financial commitment by New York City to address these housing problems. 4
LACK OF QUALITY HOUSING The quality of Bushwick s housing is so poor that Bushwick residents have found more reason to complain about housing conditions to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development than any other community district in New York. Bushwick registered 811.9 complaints per 1,000 rental housing units, almost three times the average for all of New York City. The tenants that responded to our survey reported filing complaints about fundamental housing problems that directly threaten their families health and safety. Among the most common complaints: lead paint water-saturated ceilings no hot water lack of insulation crumbling or cracked walls and ceilings lack of water pressure decrepit floors foul smells rat infestation lack of ventilation serious plumbing problems leaking pipes broken refrigerators My landlord hardly ever does anything. When he does something, he tries to save money by sending people with no training. Once some inspectors came to check the boiler but what they missed was that there was no water going into the boiler. I remember one time I opened the door to the hallway and smoke came rushing into my apartment. I went down the hallway through the smoke and my neighbor was yelling for someone to turn it off. I went downstairs and saw that the smoke was coming from the boiler. The boiler was on fire. It was so smoky that I could barely see. We turned it off by cutting off the power. The Fire Department had to come. We could have died from the carbon monoxide or the boiler lf ld h l d d Last winter we went thirty days without hot water and without heat because no one owned the building. We just had to deal with it for thirty days. We have families in the building with young children. Every time it rains, the sewage backs up. It s a big problem for the tenants on the first floor, and imagine how it must be for their kids. Maria Lantigua 5
VISUAL TOUR OF BUSHWICK REALITY A walk through the homes of Bushwick s residents can be a sobering experience as one confronts the everyday realities of New York s impoverished neighborhoods. The air hangs heavy from mold and decay, causing shortness of breath and other respiratory problems such as asthma. Rodents gnaw through the walls while roaches and roach traps are omnipresent figures on countertops, tables, walls and floors. Light fixtures and electrical sockets are rusty from leaking ceilings and walls, exposing residents to electrical shocks and electrocution. The paint and floors reveal their many layers, the result of landlord neglect. Falling and peeling plaster in stairwells and homes are not only visually unpleasant, but also pose potential health hazards. If any layer of paint applied to this wall is lead-based, it now poses a hazard to young children in the building. View of kitchen floor. Decaying surfaces create mold-related health problems such as asthma and shortness of breath. The foul smells emanating from neglected surfaces permeate the household and hallways. The hole in this wall is covered with tape and a cardboard box. Yet the child that sleeps in this room does not avoid the problems associated with peeling paint and rat holes beside her bed. Cracked and falling ceiling resulting from leaking pipes. Rat-gnawed hole in the wall and peeling paint. 6
VILE VIOLATIONS Bushwick has the single worst rate of serious housing code violations of any New York City community district, and has 450% more violations than New York City average. Bushwick registered 184.7 serious housing code violations per 1,000 rental housing units in 2001. Serious violations include all immediately hazardous complaints that must be remedied by law within 24 hours, such as the presence of lead-based paint, inadequate fire exits, rodent infestation, lack of heat, hot water, electricity, or gas. The residents that responded to our survey reported only sporadic compliance by landlords even after HPD issued violations and assessed fines. The 2001 figures represent an alarming 17.5% increase in serious violations since 2000. As a result of the poor condition of Bushwick housing, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development has recorded 582 total violations per 1,000 rental housing units in 2001, the most of any community district in New York City. View of ceiling and exposed pipes. Holes in walls and ceilings are common in Bushwick and cause immense problems and discomfort during periods of rain and snow as well as pose health problems by permitting easy access to rats, mice, roaches and insects. Functional toilets and sinks are amenities that numerous Bushwick residents lack. Landlords loathe replacing individual toilets and buildingwide plumbing, leaving many Bushwick residents forced to deal without waste disposal facilities and running water. There are so many rats where I live that sometimes I have to wait for them to move out of the way before I walk into the building. Taina Gonzalez 7
LEAD POISONING: DESTROYING OUR CHILDREN S MINDS Located in the middle of New York City s Lead Paint Belt, Bushwick children have the highest rate of lead poisoning in New York at 4.8%. ix Children in multipledwelling (three or more units) apartments built before 1960 (New York banned leadbased paint in 1960) run the risk of lead poisoning from peeling, chipped, cracking or deteriorated paint or dust. Almost 93% of all housing in Bushwick was built before 1960. x Young children are particularly susceptible to lead poisoning because their brains are still developing. Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin that can permanently destroy the brain, resulting in damage to the nervous system, brain injuries, growth retardation, loss of hearing, learning disabilities, behaviorial problems, and death. I have lived in Bushwick for two years, with my husband and son, Bryan, who is one year old. I went to the doctor to request a lead poisoning exam for my son. I never knew lead could hurt my son until I became a member of Make the Road by Walking. There I learned about the severity of lead poisoning. Unfortunately, my son was diagnosed with lead poisoning. Something that I never believed could affect my son has become a haunting reality that plagues us day after day. I needed to know what I could do to save and protect my son. Bryan now remains at a stable level that doesn t require intervention. Based on the current lead law, neither the landlord nor the city is obligated to take action to find a solution to the lead situation in my home. I received a letter from the Health Department informing me that I should take my son to the doctor every three months until the lead falls below ten. How am I going to lower the level of lead in my son if the source isn t taken out of my house? Under the current laws the deterioration of my son s condition is the only way to remove The Center for Disease Control and the State and City of New York define lead poisoning in children as children with levels of at least 10 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood. Recent reports find that there is no threshold level and that children suffer intellectual impairment even at blood-lead levels below 10 micrograms per deciliter. xi Lead poisoning is preventable. Lead-paint abatement by EPA-certified and trained workers, followed by proper testing to insure that the work was properly completed, has prevented countless tragedies across the United States. 8
LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING The problems of poor housing quality are exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing. The rental vacancy rate in Bushwick dropped from 4.0% in 1990 to 1.6% in 1999 - a sign that it is becoming extremely difficult to find affordable housing in Bushwick. During the same period, the New York City average dropped slightly from 3.8% to 3.2%. Bushwick s rental vacancy decrease was more than 4 times the decrease in New York City s average rental vacancy rate. The housing affordability problems are compounded by Bushwick residents poverty: more than one-third (38.2%) of Bushwick households live in poverty as defined by the United States government, 13.1% are unemployed (more than twice as high as the average for New York City) and 20% of Bushwick households receive public assistance. In 2001, the median household income in Bushwick was only $22,100, which averages to $6,906 per capita. Bushwick has an aging, decrepit, unaffordable housing stock that gets older, more dangerous, and more expensive every year due to landlord neglect. Many landlords purposefully let buildings fall into disrepair hoping that squalor will lead rentstabilized tenants to move out, allowing them to raise rents. The astronomical rise in monthly rent attests to the affordability problems outlined above. Between 1990 and 2000, the median monthly rent in Bushwick rose 47.1% from $425 to $625. Over the same period, the New York City average rose a mere 10.7%. As median monthly rents rose, so did the median percent of household income spent on rent from 26.3% to 30.9%. 27.9% of households have a severe housing affordability or quality problem! xii I pay $700, which is about 50% of my income, for a small apartment. It is too much money for an apartment that sometimes doesn t have hot water or heat during the winter. When something breaks, I usually have to spend my own money on top of rent. Otherwise, it doesn t get fixed. After paying for rent, I don t have enough to live on. Sharlene Bonano 9
REALITY OF RISING RENTS Our surveys confirmed the fact that Bushwick s low-income residents are finding it more difficult to meet their housing costs: respondents frequently cited rent as one of their main concerns. Almost one-third (31.9%) of all households spend greater than 50% of their income on rent, more than twice the New York City average. Almost one-fifth of Bushwick households (17.9%) spend greater than 60% of income on housing costs. xiii Such high percentages of income allotted to housing from impoverished communities increase the likelihood that low-income households will be unable to provide for their nutritional and other necessities vis-à-vis more affluent households. To illustrate this point, take the following three neighborhoods, Upper East Side, Fort Greene & Brooklyn Heights and Bushwick, which represent upper-class, middle class and lower class income levels respectively. The remaining household and per capita income for each household is as follows: Neighborhood Actual Median Household Income (2000) Income Remaining After Housing Costs xiv Per Capita Income After Housing Costs xv Upper East Side $74,130 $55,449 $32,426 Fort Greene & Brooklyn Heights $44,180 $32,428 $15,153 Bushwick $22,100 $15,271 $4,772 After housing costs, Bushwick residents have an abysmal $4,772 per capita to spend on nutritional necessities, not to mention clothing, medical assistance, school supplies and transportation, among other expenses. More astonishingly, these figures represent pre-tax income and occur in a neighborhood where 35% of the population is under 18 years of age. xvi The recent housing affordability crisis in Bushwick coincides with the deregulation of Bushwick housing. Without controls in place to mitigate soaring housing costs, Bushwick residents will continue to find that the roof over their head is simply too expensive. Given that the average length of tenure (years in current unit) of Bushwick households is 11.8 years, the unfortunate consequence of rising costs will be the displacement of longstanding residents of the community. 10
RECOMMENDATIONS To remedy the lack of home ownership HPD must improve outreach of existing programs in the languages actually spoken by the tenants, especially regarding the formation of tenant associations and cooperatives. HPD should not automatically slate buildings in tax arrears and distressed or abandoned buildings for eventual Third Party Transfer (TPT) or auction. Instead, the tenants should be consulted as to what they, the longtime occupants of the building in question, prefer. Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg must devote more resources to the creation of cooperatives, which raises home ownership rates and provides community stability. To remedy the lack of quality housing Code enforcement, code enforcement, code enforcement. As the agency with competency and jurisdiction, HPD must enforce the housing code. Passing Intro 400-A into law would be a step in the right direction. HPD must provide roof-to-cellar inspections to ensure all housing code violations are recorded and addressed at a minimal expenditure of city resources. The procedures for inspections are too fragmented and disconnected. Tenants from the same building who complain of similar emergencies and deficiencies should not be treated in a piecemeal fashion. The Department of Finance must collect tax arrears and HPD must collect fines from landlords to provide more resources for housing preservation and development. Presently, HPD rarely collects fines and the Department of Finance rarely collects back taxes that are less then a year in arrears. Moreover, HPD performs numerous emergency repairs yet does not collect from the landlord, choosing instead to place a lien on the building. Landlords who are milking the building for all it is worth before abandoning it have little incentive to make repairs including emergency repairs as long as they do not fall too far behind on property taxes. To remedy the lack of affordable housing HPD must build public and low-income housing on the numerous vacant lots that sprinkle the Bushwick environment. Bushwick, like many other impoverished neighborhoods, suffers from an abandoned and vacant lot crisis. Abandoned and vacant lots sprinkle the Bushwick environment they are prime targets for illegal dumping; they serve as impromptu offices for drug traffickers and criminals; and they are a breeding ground for rats, mice and cockroaches, which have been shown to aggravate a number of health problems. Current programs, including the Major Capital Improvements (MCI) program, permit landlords to make improvements to their buildings after which the landlords are allowed to permanently raise the rent in rent-stabilized apartments, even after the costs of the improvements have been recouped. MCIs are used as a tool to displace rent stabilized tenants by landlords who hope to price out low-income tenants. In Bushwick, where over 50% of units are rent-stabilized, MCIs serve as a loophole in the rent stabilization system by permitting landlords to make frivolous or nominal repairs for the sole purpose of raising future rent to surpass the rent-destabilization threshold. The state should adjust the income range to qualify for rent stabilization. Currently, the income ranges are set too low, excluding households that are in dire need of government assistance. 11
END NOTES i Source: State of New York City s Housing and Neighborhoods 2003. ii Source: New York Acorn: Neighborhoods for Sale: An Assessment of New York City s Subsidized New Housing & Vacant Land Use Policies in Low-Income Neighborhoods (February 2003). iii Other regulated units include Public Housing, City-owned Housing, Section 8 Units, etc. iv Compare State of New York City s Housing and Neighborhoods (2003), Neighborhood Table 4-5 and 13-1. v For example, consider the total number of in rem units and the percent of existing units rehabilitated in 2000 for the following community districts in the Bronx: Mott Haven/Melrose (1,381, 4.5%), Hunts Point/Longwood (1,641, 10.43%), Morrisania/Crotona (2,383, 9.83%), Highbridge/Concourse (3,884, 8.08%), and Belmont/East Tremont (2,662, 10.47%). vi For example, consider the total number of in rem units and the percent of existing units rehabilitated in 2000 for the following community districts in Manhattan: Morningside Heights/Hamilton (3,198, 6.99%), Central Harlem (4,479, 7.47%), and East Harlem (1,621, 3.46%). vii For example, consider the total number of units and percentage of existing units of rehabilitated occupied privately owned housing units through New York City Capital Programs (1987-2001) in the Bronx: Highbridge/Concourse (4,094, 8.51%), Fordham/University Heights (3,722, 8.94%), and Belmont/East Tremont (2,216, 8.72%). viii For example, consider the total number of units and percentage of existing units of rehabilitated occupied privately owned housing units through New York City Capital Programs (1987-2001) in Manhattan: Morningside Heights/Hamilton (2,684, 5.87%), Central Harlem (5,732, 9.57%), East Harlem (2,389, 5.10%) and Washington Heights/Inwood (4,247, 5.91%). ix Source: New York City Department of Health, Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (1998 corrected data). x Source: New York League of Conservation Voters (2003). xi Source: New England Journal of Medicine (April 17, 2003). xii Source: NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey and The State of New York City s Housing and Neighborhoods 2002. xiii Source: The State of New York City s Housing and Neighborhoods 2002, Tables 4-2 and 4-3. xiv Note: the actual percentages of household income spent for rent in the Upper East Side (25.2%) and Fort Greene (26.6%) are less than the Bushwick average (30.9%), which further highlights the affordability crisis in Bushwick. xv Based on actual household size for Upper East Side (1.71), Fort Greene & Brooklyn Heights (2.14) and Bushwick (3.2). xvi Source: New York City, Department of City Planning: 2000 Community Districts. 12