No choice but to leave amid NYC housing crisis, Bronx family says

THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) – There are signs of progress everywhere you look, like affordable housing projects going up across New York City.

But for millions of New Yorkers like Bronx resident Zulma Figueroa and her husband Manra, their family’s quest for housing stability remains rocky at best.

The couple and their four children live in a two-bedroom apartment; it’s what they were able to find – and can barely afford.

“It was very difficult because of the prices. Like, three months, it was like $6,000. Yeah, it’s a struggle,” Figueroa said. 

Figueroa and her husband's struggle are echoed in an eye-opening new report by the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development.

It shows the city’s rental apartment vacancy, or availability rate at just 1.4 percent; a significant drop since 2021 and the lowest citywide vacancy rate in more than 50-years.

HPD Commissioner and former Bronx Borough President Adolpho Carrion said the city is failing to meet demand.

“We had a banner year last year in terms of producing new construction of affordable housing. It was nearly 15-thousand units. We are falling very, very short of meeting the need,” said Carrion.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul led a groundbreaking Friday for a once stalled affordable housing project – one of many slated for the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

“Together we’re facilitating over 53-hundred residential units – right here,” Hochul said.

Every borough is in need of more affordable housing – but that’s especially the case in the Bronx which, according to the latest census data, ranks last among the boroughs in median and per capita income with more than a quarter of its population living below the poverty line.

“It means, in the Bronx, they are the hardest hit,” said Carrion.

For Zulma Figueroa and her family, there’s only one workable solution.

“Yes. We want to leave – god help us – to Pennsylvania – it’s more affordable there,” Figueroa said.

Commissioner Carrion advises anyone looking for affordable housing to go to the city’s housing connect portal and create an account in order to participate in the ongoing affordable housing lottery for a new apartment.