Sam J Miller

Derelict Buildings, Derelict Government

Manhattan vacant property could house every single homeless person in the city--
so why won't the Administration do it?

Picture this. Vacant lots strewn with rubble and household garbage. Boarded-up buildings as far as the eye can see. Graffiti blanketing every surface. Dangerous burned-out husks slowly collapsing in on themselves. Landlords raising rents and cutting off services in an attempt to drive out low-income tenants. Neighborhoods hemorrhaging young people into the shelter system and the prisons.

If you're picturing the blight and devastation that plagued urban America in the 1970's and 1980's, you're right. But if you think it's a thing of the past, you're wrong.

Neighborhoods both rich and poor are packed with boarded-up buildings. In Harlem, several streets look like time capsules from the worst days of urban blight in the 1980's. Even in the real estate utopia surrounding Grand Central Terminal, one block boasts four boarded-up buildings. While many vacant properties were once owned by the city, the past two mayoral administrations have focused on selling or giving away its property holdings to real estate interests. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has repeatedly stated that abandoned buildings are "not a problem," that homelessness is on the decline, and that gentrification of neighborhoods like Harlem will lead to housing for all.

Homeless people knew this was pure fantasy. At Picture the Homeless, a grassroots group founded and led by homeless people, we spent three years organizing around the issue, trying to move the city to do something about all these abandoned buildings. In 2006, we partnered with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to develop and execute a block-by-block count of every single vacant building and lot in that borough.

What we found was shocking--even to us, even after working on this issue for so long. There are enough potential apartments in vacant buildings and lots in Manhattan alone to house every single homeless person on the streets and in the shelters citywide.

Picture the Homeless has issued a report--Homeless People Count: Vacant Property in Manhattan--that details our findings, provides context for this information within the current housing moment, and spells out the legislative and policy changes that need to happen for this to stop.

Click here to download the report in PDF form:
http://www.picturethehomeless.org/files/pdf/Homeless_People_Count.pdf

With no official data, and total silence on the issue in the media, many in the progressive community have been skeptical about whether or not property abandonment was a significant problem. Now that we can quantify the extent to which it continues to plague the city of New York, and the potential impact these properties could have on the housing crisis, we're excited at the dialog that's starting to build around empty properties and their connection to so many of the racial and social justice issues that we're all working on...

The Manhattan neighborhoods with the most empty buildings and lots:
* Are predominantly communities of color;
* Send the majority of families into the homeless shelter system and the criminal "justice" system;
* Have the highest rates of asthma and other indicators of environmental injustice;
* Have the highest rates of HIV infection;
* Have the lowest household incomes, the highest rates of unemployment, and the most serious housing code violations (meaning tons of slumlords).

Sam J. Miller is the organizer of the Housing Campaign at Picture the Homeless. Email him at sam@picturethehomeless.org

Sam J Miller: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 4:05 PM, May 16, 2007 in Community Development | Housing
Permalink | Email to Friend