BCC Releases New Report on Housing Conditions & Health Outcomes

(Brooklyn, N.Y.) -- Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC), in partnership with Maimonides Medical Center, Community Care of Brooklyn, The East Brooklyn Call to Action, and The Brooklyn Workers Council, released today a new report on the relationship between housing, built environment, and health in Central and East Brooklyn. The report, developed by local student researchers trained in Participatory Action Research (PAR), explains how a shortage of affordable housing options, unsafe living conditions, extreme heat vulnerability, and limited access to fresh food have contributed to poor health outcomes among residents. It also provides community-based recommendations to raise awareness among policymakers, advocacy groups, housing developers, and other neighborhood stakeholders.

BCC has cosponsored student-led PAR projects every summer for the last five years, using a combination of interviews, focus groups, and other qualitative research methods to study health disparities throughout the borough. While research findings from each PAR project have been localized to specific neighborhoods, one consistent challenge raised by residents across nearly every PAR project was access to housing. As a result, BCC decided to focus solely on this issue for the 2020-2021 PAR project.

Due to a long history of disinvestment, securing access to affordable housing in Central and East Brooklyn has become increasingly challenging. This issue -- compounded by high rates of poverty, unemployment, and other social determinants of health -- has contributed to poor health outcomes among residents, particularly within low-income communities and communities of color in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and East New York. Unfortunately, these communities were also among those most impacted by the pandemic, which has only served to exacerbate the problem.

Summary of Key Findings

• Community Profiles
  • Bedford-Stuyvesant reported the highest median household income ($32, 980), followed by East New York ($42,060) and Brownsville ($32,980).
  • Brownsville reported the highest poverty rate (27.8%), followed by Bedford-Stuyvesant (27%). By contrast, the citywide poverty rate is 19%.
  • Brownsville reported the highest proportion of renters (82.1%). Of this total, 38.5% are considered “rent burdened,” or spend 35% or more of household income on rent.
  • East New York reported the highest rate (5.1%) of “severe crowding,” or having more than one and a half persons per room, followed by Bedford-Stuyvesant (3.9%) and Brownsville (1.7%).

• Health and Housing
  • As a result of long-term neglect by housing management, increased exposure to mold, pests, lead, and crowding have been linked to a wide range of poor health outcomes in all three neighborhoods, from muscular weakness and nausea to respiratory illness and kidney failure.
  • Brownsville reported the highest rate of food insecurity (32%), followed by Bedford-Stuyvesant (25.7%) and East New York (21.8%).
  • Additionally, all three neighborhoods are considered “food swamps,” or areas with large numbers of readily available but unhealthy food options, which has contributed to higher rates of chronic illness, including obesity and diabetes.
  • According to the Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI), all three neighborhoods reached the highest level of heat vulnerability (5/5), which can exacerbate pre-existing health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness, and even cause death.

Community-Based Recommendations

• Provide residents with educational materials on issues related to health and housing, expand access to tenant rights advocacy tools, and connect local remediation and construction businesses with buildings that require these services.
• Develop more mixed-use buildings that use street-level spaces for grocery stores and community kitchen education spaces.
• Dedicate more lot space for urban agricultural use and expand workforce development programs in culinary training and urban agriculture.
• Install more shade structures in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods. This can be part of a citywide design competition for low-cost shade structures that can be disassembled during the offseason.
• Partner with community-based organizations to develop pop-up shade structures for heat events and public art installations with shade components.
• Engage with housing developers and property owners about installing “green roofs” and “green walls” to lower the temperatures of buildings and surrounding areas.

“As a result of decades of disinvestment, many residents of Central and East Brooklyn have struggled to find safe and affordable housing, which has had a profound impact on their health, wellbeing, and ability to build community wealth,” said Shari Suchoff, Executive Director of BCC. “This report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the complex relationship between housing conditions and health outcomes, will serve as a crucial tool for the advocacy, organizing, and planning efforts of community-based organizations that have been working to address these issues on the ground. Ultimately, we hope this report inspires collaboration and sparks action across all sectors.”

About Participatory Action Research

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a collaborative, intersectional, and dynamic approach to research that equitably involves community members and neighborhood stakeholders in all stages of the project, from generating survey questions to analyzing collected data. PAR is based on the premise that those most impacted by a certain issue also have the most insight to offer when it comes to developing solutions that will benefit the community as a whole. BCC’s PAR projects have helped foster multi-sector partnerships, facilitate community investments, and unite neighborhood stakeholders, labor unions, community-based organizations, elected officials, and others on a range of issues.

About Brooklyn Communities Collaborative

Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC) is a not-for-profit based in New York that works with local institutions and stakeholders to address longstanding health inequities in the borough. BCC was founded in 2019 with the goal of leveraging the financial power of anchor institutions and community resources to address the economic factors that improve the social determinants of health -- whether it's supporting housing stability, advancing economic empowerment, expanding care management services, or strengthening CBOs in the area. BCC's innovative, student-led research studies target historically underserved communities throughout the borough to identify challenges and concerns raised by residents, using that information to inform stakeholders and organizations on solutions. BCC builds upon years of collaborative efforts with anchor institutions and community partners, which have helped connect 80,000 complex-need patients to care management services, produce 30,000 pounds of fresh produce annually, and develop 3,400 units of housing.