New Study: Violent Crime Rate Growing in NYC Public Housing

As New York City becomes safer, NYCHA lags behind

NEW YORK, NY — As the city reels from the murder of NYPD Officer Randolph Holder at the hands of a public housing resident and career criminal, attention is turning to public safety in city housing. A new report by Manhattan Institute policy analyst Alex Armlovich shows that New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents experience double or more their share of violent crime.

Using historical CompStat data, the study compares crime within NYCHA areas vis-à-vis citywide crime. It finds that while NYCHA residents are no more likely to be victims of crime than the average city resident, crimes within public housing are far more likely to be violent (i.e. murder, rape, and assault)—and this gap is only growing. Since 2006, NYCHA’s share of the city population fell by 0.3 percentage points to 4.8 percent, while its share of citywide murders grew significantly—from 11.1 percent to 14.9 percent. In other words, people in NYCHA territory endure roughly three times the citywide murder rate and are twice more likely to suffer rape and felony assault than the rest of the city.

Governor Cuomo, aware of this troubling trend, announced that nearly $42 million in state funding will be allocated to increasing safety at NYCHA developments.

The NYPD, too, has been committed to improving security in public housing. Beginning last summer, the City announced a plan to target the 15 most dangerous housing projects for safety improvements. Based on the NYCHA-wide data used in this report, the results of these changes are thus far uncertain, and a follow-up report will use housing project-level data to track their success.

Click here to read the full report.