Opinion: Follow the Lead of South Bronx Groups to Deliver Affordable Housing
City Limits
By: Ambroise Ngande
For more than a half century, the South Bronx, and specifically Mott Haven, has been the poster child of American urban decay.
Our neighborhoods continue to suffer from economic inequality and disenfranchisement; almost 40 percent of Mott Haven and Melrose residents live below the poverty line. It was over 50 years ago that the 1967 Kerner Commission acknowledged the severe racial and socioeconomic challenges in areas such as Mott Haven, yet today this divide is more pronounced than ever.
When COVID-19 first hit, we saw The Bronx’s unemployment rate jump from 4.9 percent to nearly 25 percent—its highest level since the Great Depression. We still haven’t bounced back. Local businesses are suffering and employment opportunities have slumped.
