NEW YORK: Dominicans abandon Washington Heights
By Antonio Espinal
NEW YORK. - The constant increase of the rents in Washington Heights / Inwood is pushing many Dominicans to move of that sector that historically has been its neighborhood, according to a report of the Institute of Dominican Studies of the University of the City of New York (CUNY)
The report represents the first part of a two-part study the Institute is conducting on the status of affordable housing in the Washington Heights / Inwood sector of New York City, written by Ramona Hernandez, Ph.D. Utku Sezgin and Sarah Marrara. Hernández is director of the Institute and professor of Sociology at CUNY.
The study-from which we obtained a copy-specifically examines the gentrification process, the rising cost of housing, and the decline of Dominican households in Washington Heights / Inwood. It also includes a section on policy recommendations after the analysis of the data.
Part Two of the study will focus more closely on evaluating the status of programs such as the Rent Increase Waiver for Senior Citizens (SCRIE) and the specific demand for Subsidized and Public Housing. The study will also examine de facto practices, such as preferential rent, that promise to reduce the cost of rental housing and the displacement of low-income residents, particularly Dominicans, from Washington Heights / Inwood.
The general goals of the two-part study are (a) to contribute to the discussion on the need to preserve and build more affordable housing for the working class, low-income people and immigrants; (b) expand the level of academic knowledge about the impact of an increasingly deregulated real estate market on long-standing vulnerable communities, and (c) arm those communities and their elected officials with tangible solutions to what has become a local growth as well as a national epidemic.
It is mentioned that in the 1990s and the first years of the 21st century, the demographic observers of the city of New York expected the seemingly inexorable increase in the number of Dominicans in the city, to continue unabated for the foreseeable future. With all the recent enthusiasm proclaiming the Dominicans as the largest Latino group in the city, with a population close to one million, the presence of Dominicans in the city and specifically in the Washington Heights / Inwood enclave can not be taken for granted. .
Gentrification, defined as the phenomenon of increased demand by young professionals for housing in a convenient and well-located neighborhood and the rapid increase in income that displaces the poorest residents in the longer term, is a problem throughout the city of New York. Washington Heights / Inwood, has not been immune. According to the Furman Center, Washington Heights / Inwood is rapidly becoming bourgeois; threatening their poor with displacement due to increasing rents.
The report explains that gentrification has been a reality in Washington Heights / Inwood since at least the end of the 1990s, following in the footsteps of similar neighborhoods that have undergone gentrification, Washington Heights / Inwood has slowly witnessed a resurgence of the growing population driven by the recent arrival of middle and upper class immigrants with high incomes. Unfortunately, the resurgence has come at the expense of the poorest long-term residents, who are having problems paying high rent increases and can not find housing in the neighborhood they can.
The present study adds to the consensus on gentrification in the literature. Many housing experts in the city agree that as gentrification takes hold of one desirable neighborhood after another, and as people with higher incomes have moved more and more into such neighborhoods, as a consequence low-income families They have been displaced in alarming numbers from the places they once called their home.
Although gentrification has been on the agenda of many legislators as a priority, currently, the gentrification process continues unabated. Low-income workers who live in those neighborhoods that have become attractive and desired by the affluents are unfortunately forced to experience the displacement of their homes and move once more.
The report states that because Dominicans have been the poorest and largest ethnic immigrant group in Washington Heights / Inwood for decades, they have been the hardest hit. Gentrification has pushed some people and brought others. As expected, these changes are transforming the character of the neighborhood. In the case of displaced Dominican families, those who leave also take with them their cultural belonging and the continuity of their historical legacy.
If current trends continue - the report warns - the displacement of people is likely to worsen. It will also mean the greatest elimination of the neighborhood's long-standing cultural identity. This will be a loss not only for Dominicans, but also for all New Yorkers.
computer translated from: http://usahora.com/nueva-york-dominicanos-abandonan-a-washington-heights/
By Antonio Espinal
NEW YORK. - The constant increase of the rents in Washington Heights / Inwood is pushing many Dominicans to move of that sector that historically has been its neighborhood, according to a report of the Institute of Dominican Studies of the University of the City of New York (CUNY)
The report represents the first part of a two-part study the Institute is conducting on the status of affordable housing in the Washington Heights / Inwood sector of New York City, written by Ramona Hernandez, Ph.D. Utku Sezgin and Sarah Marrara. Hernández is director of the Institute and professor of Sociology at CUNY.
The study-from which we obtained a copy-specifically examines the gentrification process, the rising cost of housing, and the decline of Dominican households in Washington Heights / Inwood. It also includes a section on policy recommendations after the analysis of the data.
Part Two of the study will focus more closely on evaluating the status of programs such as the Rent Increase Waiver for Senior Citizens (SCRIE) and the specific demand for Subsidized and Public Housing. The study will also examine de facto practices, such as preferential rent, that promise to reduce the cost of rental housing and the displacement of low-income residents, particularly Dominicans, from Washington Heights / Inwood.
The general goals of the two-part study are (a) to contribute to the discussion on the need to preserve and build more affordable housing for the working class, low-income people and immigrants; (b) expand the level of academic knowledge about the impact of an increasingly deregulated real estate market on long-standing vulnerable communities, and (c) arm those communities and their elected officials with tangible solutions to what has become a local growth as well as a national epidemic.
It is mentioned that in the 1990s and the first years of the 21st century, the demographic observers of the city of New York expected the seemingly inexorable increase in the number of Dominicans in the city, to continue unabated for the foreseeable future. With all the recent enthusiasm proclaiming the Dominicans as the largest Latino group in the city, with a population close to one million, the presence of Dominicans in the city and specifically in the Washington Heights / Inwood enclave can not be taken for granted. .
Gentrification, defined as the phenomenon of increased demand by young professionals for housing in a convenient and well-located neighborhood and the rapid increase in income that displaces the poorest residents in the longer term, is a problem throughout the city of New York. Washington Heights / Inwood, has not been immune. According to the Furman Center, Washington Heights / Inwood is rapidly becoming bourgeois; threatening their poor with displacement due to increasing rents.
The report explains that gentrification has been a reality in Washington Heights / Inwood since at least the end of the 1990s, following in the footsteps of similar neighborhoods that have undergone gentrification, Washington Heights / Inwood has slowly witnessed a resurgence of the growing population driven by the recent arrival of middle and upper class immigrants with high incomes. Unfortunately, the resurgence has come at the expense of the poorest long-term residents, who are having problems paying high rent increases and can not find housing in the neighborhood they can.
The present study adds to the consensus on gentrification in the literature. Many housing experts in the city agree that as gentrification takes hold of one desirable neighborhood after another, and as people with higher incomes have moved more and more into such neighborhoods, as a consequence low-income families They have been displaced in alarming numbers from the places they once called their home.
Although gentrification has been on the agenda of many legislators as a priority, currently, the gentrification process continues unabated. Low-income workers who live in those neighborhoods that have become attractive and desired by the affluents are unfortunately forced to experience the displacement of their homes and move once more.
The report states that because Dominicans have been the poorest and largest ethnic immigrant group in Washington Heights / Inwood for decades, they have been the hardest hit. Gentrification has pushed some people and brought others. As expected, these changes are transforming the character of the neighborhood. In the case of displaced Dominican families, those who leave also take with them their cultural belonging and the continuity of their historical legacy.
If current trends continue - the report warns - the displacement of people is likely to worsen. It will also mean the greatest elimination of the neighborhood's long-standing cultural identity. This will be a loss not only for Dominicans, but also for all New Yorkers.
computer translated from: http://usahora.com/nueva-york-dominicanos-abandonan-a-washington-heights/