The Gentrification of New York City

Last month ProPublica reported on the loss of rent stabilized apartments in New York City and the growing number of tenants being evicted by landlords. The result has been a dramatic decrease in affordable housing and increasing gentrification in many of the city's neighborhoods.

Last year the NYU Furman Center released a report into Gentrification in New York City (PDF). The report examines how increasing rents and stagnating incomes have contributed to the gentrification of nearly two-thirds of the city's previously low-income neighborhoods.

The result of this gentrification of New York is that many residents are paying more in housing than they can easily afford. The Association for Neighborhoods and Housing Development is worried by the increasing loss of affordable housing and has decided to help raise awareness of "where residential tenants may be facing significant displacement pressures and where affordable apartments are most threatened across New York City".

The association's Displacement Project Alert Map provides a building by building assessment of where residential tenants may be facing significant displacement pressures. Individual residential buildings are color coded on the map to show the displacement risk level for residents living there.

The DAP map provides a number of displacement risk level scores for New York residential buildings. These risk scores are based on the loss of rent regulated units, the volume of Department of Buildings work permits and the level of property sales tax. The map also provides a combined score for each building based on these multiple combined risks of displacement.

ProPublica's interactive map Tracking Evictions and Rent Stabilization in NYC shows the number of eviction cases that were made in New York City apartment blocks between January 2013 and June 2015. There may not be a direct correlation between the number of eviction orders in New York and the desire of landlords to drive out rent stabilized tenants, however the ProPublica map certainly shows an incredible number of eviction orders have been made against New York tenants in recent years.

Clicking on the apartment buildings colored on the ProPublica map reveals the number of eviction orders placed on tenants (and the likely rent stabilization status of the building's apartments). It is truly remarkable how many apartment buildings in New York have had over 100 eviction orders served on tenants in such a short space of time.