South Bronx residents face displacement as gentrification takes hold

MOTT HAVEN, the Bronx (PIX11) – When rents and other costs rise so much that long-time residents of a community get displaced, demographers and sociologists generally consider that to be gentrification.

It's more than just a concept, though, for people experiencing it firsthand, and it's now happening to some residents in neighborhoods once thought by many people to be immune from displacing development.

The South Bronx was described as "very sobering," and full of "devastation" by President Jimmy Carter when he visited the neighborhood in 1977. It was the same year that a rash of building fires in the area prompted sportscaster Howard Cosell to tell viewers, "The Bronx is burning." 

Now, the fourth most populous of New York City's five boroughs is red hot with development, and that's affecting residents who've lived in the borough before it became more of a luxury destination. 

The Bronx has taken the No. 1 spot for development among the five boroughs in just the last year. In 2023, the Bronx acquired more new housing than Brooklyn, which had held the top spot for more than a decade. The Bronx also had more housing development last year than Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island combined. 

Many of those new units have gone up in high-rise buildings along the waterfront on the Harlem River in the south and southwest Bronx. 

Signs on the buildings that advertise apartments' availability describe the newly built homes as "luxury meets purpose," or "luxury rentals" with "superb amenities." 

Stephen Rivera was walking through the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven on a recent morning.

"I lived in the Bronx my whole life," he said. 

When asked about all of the high-rises that had been built in the neighborhood in the last couple of years, he was generally in favor of the changes.

"Honestly, I see a lot of improving, like new buildings around the area," he said. 

Another long-term resident, Amari Harris, said, "The overall change about this area, I give it a thumbs up."

Carla, a mother of two elementary schoolers, who did not give her last name, has lived in Mott Haven for about 15 years. 

"Buildings, the restaurants," she said, describing the changes she's seen in the last decade-and-a-half that she's lived here. "It's gotten more populated," she said, "It's very comfortable now."

Carla said that she likes the changes she's seen in her neighborhood. However, she said, "The rent isn't good. It's very high."

"[We may] have to leave eventually," she continued, adding, "That sucks." 

She was not happy about the possibility of being priced out of the neighborhood. She's by no means alone. 

Manuel Calixto has built four successful businesses in the South Bronx over the last two decades: a woodworking and carpentry workshop, a construction company, a laundromat, and a restaurant. 

It was in the restaurant, Maisonetta, a French-Mexican fusion eatery in Mott Haven, that he spoke in an interview about changes in the community. 

"[I'd] definitely call it that -- gentrification," Calixto said. 

He went on to say that he knows it when he sees it because he's seen it firsthand. 

Calixto's first company, Quarter Sawn Woodworking and Carpentry, was founded in Brooklyn in the late 1990s. 

"We were in Greenpoint," he said, "which, you know, the same thing happened as it's happening now [in Mott Haven.]"

He'd moved to the South Bronx neighborhood in 2005 because of the much more affordable rents at the time. Now, though, Calixto said, "The same thing is happening here."

He said that he's fortunate that the profits from his businesses have enabled him to buy a building in which to build a new headquarters. However, he added, it will require a move away from Mott Haven. 

"We're moving to Morris Park," Calixto said, "which is like 20 minutes from here."

It's still in the Bronx, but is more affordable – at least for now. 

Julie Spitzer, the vice president of homelessness prevention and benefits at BronxWorks, a non-profit that supports at-risk families in the Bronx, said that from what she observes in the economic changes of the borough, "I think they're moving the working poor out."

Under her supervision, BronxWorks helps families apply for government benefits, provides childcare, and runs a food pantry.  

"Our pantry lines have working people, people who have decent jobs," Spitzer said. "They can't afford to live."

She said that when she first started working at assisting families in the borough 30 years ago, it was common to have rents at $500 a month. 

"Now, if you're lucky," she said, "for a one bedroom, it's running between $2,600, to two bedrooms over $3,000 and change."

That is the case for many new Bronx developments, and those rates are defined by the government as "affordable." It's based on a formula, as explained by Ruben Diaz, Jr., the former Bronx borough president, who's now the founder and CEO of the consulting firm NuevoDiaz and Associates. 

"To keep housing at 30% or less for everyone," Diaz said about government affordability guidelines. 

"Gentrification doesn't have to mean that you force people out," said the man who, as borough president from 2009 to 2021, led efforts to create thousands of new housing units from long-neglected land. 

He's part of the reason why almost all new developments in the Bronx have at least one-third of the apartments renting at rates deemed "affordable." 

Some critics, like Spitzer from BronxWorks, say that the rents that are designated as affordable are still not low enough. 

"Low-income housing should be for low-income people," Spitzer said.