In 1999, the five most in-need neighborhoods, located in the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn, and Upper Manhattan doubled and at times tripled the City’s average of units with severe housing quality problems, defined as units with five or more maintenance deficiencies. The percent of units in these neighborhoods ranged from 8.8% to 12.8%, while New York City averaged 3.1%.
Three of these five neighborhoods with the highest concentration of housing code violations saw an average increase of nearly 2% of units with severe quality problems from 1996-1999.
These neighborhoods include University Heights/Fordham in the Bronx, which saw a 2.7% increase in the number of units with severe quality problems; Soundview/Parkchester in the Bronx, which saw a 0.6% increase; and Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, which saw a 1.7 % increase.
From 1999 to 2002 the Bronx again had the highest percent of housing units with severe quality problems (5.8%), more than doubling the City’s average (2.8%).
Inequitable enforcement and worsening conditions were especially severe in the Bronx, which overall saw a 13.4% increase in the average number of maintenance deficiencies per building between 1999 and 2002, while all the other boroughs showed substantial percent decreases, ranging from 3.3% to 8.5%.
The City’s neighborhoods that are most at-risk for increasing maintenance deficiencies are easily identifiable.
While some neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn showed an increase in maintenance deficiencies, concerted efforts by city agencies, including the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), have reduced the overall number of housing code violations per dwelling unit. Housing units in the worst condition, with 5 or more maintenance deficiencies, declined nearly 2% from 1996 – 1999, and 0.3% from 1999 – 2002.
