Bushwick Buildings Are The Most Hazardous In NYC, Study Finds

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Bushwick’s buildings are the most hazardous in the entire city, a new study has found.

The Association For Neighborhood and Housing Development released its study on affordable New York City housing that shows Bushwick buildings have, on average, more serious housing code violations than in any other neighborhood.

The Housing Development and Preservation department doled out 284.5 immediately hazardous violations — citations for rats, roaches, peeling lead paint, or a lack of heat or hot water — for every 1,000 apartments in Bushwick, Friday’s report found.

No other neighborhood in New York City came close to matching Bushwick’s staggering average. Sunset Park came in second with a rate of 191 violations per 1,000 apartments, East Flatbush came in third with 170.4 and Bed-Stuy came in fourth with 161.8.

The study also found that just a little more than half of Bushwick’s apartments are affordable to local residents, that an above-average number (322) of landlords were sued by their tenants or HPD, and that an above-average percentage (4.6) lived in severely overcrowded homes.

ANHD’s study looked at 20 criteria to determine where in New York City affordable housing was being threatened the most

The study found affordable housing was threatened most The Bronx's Highbridge neighborhood and safest in Tottenville, Staten Island. Bushwick came in with a 12-point score which put it right in the middle.

To find out how other New York City neighborhoods fared, check out the complete chart. To For more information about how the data was compiled, read the ANHD’s guide to its data.

Photo courtesy of Christian Mueller/ Shutterstock