The apartments reportedly cost applicants who earn 125% of the Area Median Income $2,311 and have a minimum income requirement of $80,000.
In a city where there is already a “Black exodus” — Black people leaving in large numbers — the rent for the newest “affordable” studio apartments in Harlem is $2.3K per month.
Patch reported that the apartments cost applicants who earn 125% of the Area Median Income $2,311 and have a minimum income requirement of $80,000.
Single New Yorkers must make between $79,235 and $128,570 annually to qualify. Couples who want to share a studio must make a combined $146,900 annually.
There is a dishwasher inside each unit, but tenants should plan to foot the bill for their electricity, including [an] electric stove, per the listing. The elevator building offers a laundry room, rooftop patio, virtual doorman, gym, and bike storage.
The not-so-affordable apartments are advertised as Black residents leave urban neighborhoods around the city, particularly Harlem – the center of Black heritage and culture – for more rural locations.
According to Gothamist, New York City’s non-Hispanic Black population is declining at one of the fastest rates among major cities in the U.S., only behind Chicago and Detroit. The trend foreshadows what many locals, demographers, and other experts consider upcoming complex political, social, and economic issues. Some observers note that changing demographics raises the unsettling question of whose interests New York City serves.
“These are not just issues that are persistent in the Black community in Brooklyn,” said Brooklyn NAACP president L. Joy Williams, Gothamist reported. “They are issues of working-class and poor people across the city.”
African Americans are leaving New York in such great numbers for various reasons. Demographers point out that the aging population may be a factor, and some African Americans, like other groups, may move away to stretch their retirement funds, avoid high taxes, and take advantage of better possibilities elsewhere.
Researchers also highlight the housing crisis, which has sparked disputes in neighborhoods about affordability and what more can be done to protect housing for individuals with the lowest incomes. Additionally, despite the city’s economy adding more high-paying employment, they claim that, overall, Black New Yorkers have had less economic growth and fewer job prospects than other groups, as reported by The New York Times in April.
Despite the city’s many challenges, “people still love New York,” explained Zulema Blair, chair of public administration at CUNY’s Medgar Evers College and an expert on the city’s shifting Black population, in a Gothamist interview. “But it’s not a place that they feel that they can thrive,” said Blair.
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