Views of the Northwest Bronx is comprised of ten on-line essays, an introductory blog, a summary blog, a presentation and interviews with Bronx residents, UNHP board members and Bronx community development professionals. The blog series has been broken up on UNHP’s Affordable Housing Research page into the four main themes that frame our series. Here is the introductory blog post as well as the blog series summary and select responses from neighborhood residents.
The Bronx is in a very unique and precarious situation. You have different groups of people making decisions that have and will affect its’ residents for decades to come. City officials are directing a disproportionate amount of supportive housing, shelter beds and cluster site projects to the Bronx that create pockets of almost permanent poverty. Then you have speculative developers who are looking to cash in on the housing crisis and banks that are willing to finance their purchase of over-priced buildings. All the while, Bronx residents who receive no subsidies, the large majority, are struggling to stay afloat because their wages have not kept up with rent and cost of living increases.
The next generation of Bronxites deserves a chance to live in the neighborhoods that the previous generation fought to preserve.
-John Garcia, UNHP Board member, Executive Director Fordham Bedford Community Services, & life-long Bronx resident.
Check out the three other themes from our #ViewsNWBX blog series below.
Trends in Bronx Multifamily Housing and New Construction
A Call for Community-Based Development