Being a tenant in Bushwick isn’t easy.
Rents are rising at some of the fastest rates in all of NYC and more than a few of the neighborhood’s property owners are driving out longtime residents in an effort to make room for new, higher-paying renters. On top of all of that, it turns out that Bushwick is also home to one of the highest rates of serious housing violations in the city.
According to data from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and presented by the NYU Furman Center, Bushwick had 101.7 serious housing violations per 1,000 privately owned rental units between 2016 and 2017. This is the ninth highest rate of serious housing violations of any neighborhood in New York.
In 2017, HPD issued a total of 14,139 housing violations to Bushwick landlords, but not all of these qualify as “serious” violations. 24 percent were class A or “non-hazardous” violations, which include issues like missing peepholes and lack of street numbers on the front of a door.
Class B or “hazardous” violations, which include issues like lack of lighting or lack of smoke detectors, made up 54 percent of violations. 22 percent of violations were Class C or “immediately hazardous” violations. These are the most serious violations, like lack of heat and hot water, broken or defective plumbing fixtures, and peeling lead paint. Class B and C violations are both considered “serious.”
So that’s your fast fact of the week, Bushwick! Have a question about the neighborhood that you want us to try and answer using data? Leave a comment below!
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Cover image courtesy of Brian Sugden