New Report: Commercial Development Could Improve Quality of Life in NYCHA ‘Food Deserts’

NEW YORK, NY — Maintenance backlogs and high crime rates aren’t the only things making life difficult in New York City’s public housing developments. Residents of 180 New York City Housing Authority properties currently live in “food deserts,” a new report by the Manhattan Institute’s Howard Husock finds. This means that for many of New York’s lowest-income residents, access to fresh food—something most New Yorkers take for granted—is a serious hurdle. The key, argues Husock, is to encourage new retail-rental development on NYCHA properties.

Low-income neighborhoods are the most likely to be underserved by local supermarkets, and since 2009, New York City has offered financial and zoning incentives to boost access to fresh food. NYCHA, however, has long excluded commercial development, including supermarkets, on its properties. Changing this policy would significantly improve quality of life in public housing, while introducing a new revenue stream for NYCHA, which currently faces a maintenance-repair backlog of up to $17 billion.

Husock estimates that encouraging new retail-rental development on the 50 NYCHA properties already eligible for special-zoning incentives could yield up to $19 million in new annual revenue to the city. Meanwhile, some of the poorest New Yorkers would see their lives changed for the better with increased access to healthy food, more funding for capital repairs, and lower crime due to increased security and foot traffic.

Click here to read the full report.