By Kevin Deutsch
[email protected]
A new report is shedding light on major economic and educational disparities plaguing Bronx children.
The report, “Child & Family Well-Being in New York City: Ranking Risks and Resources Across 59 Community Districts,” measured 18 indicators involving economic security, housing, health, education, youth, family and community in the five boroughs.
Formerly known as the Community Risk Ranking, the document is influential among city policymakers, service providers, and advocates, many of whom rely on its contents to better understand child poverty and public health.
Among the report’s most alarming conclusions:
- Mott Haven families run the highest risk of economic insecurity, with kids in the neighborhood more than 18 times more likely to live in poverty than children in Greenwich Village.
- Hunts Point families experience “substantial” educational disparities at every level of the system, from enrollment in early educational programs to high school graduation rates.
- University Heights families run the highest risk of housing instability, with nearly four of every ten households spending at least half their income on rent, compared to about two in ten households in midtown Manhattan, which ranked highest in housing stability.
- Of the seven neighborhoods with the highest level of collective risk to children’s well-being, six are in the Bronx.
For the first time, the report also examined scarcity of municipal resources including homeless support services, according to the Citizens’ Committee for Children, the nonprofit advocacy group that publishes the report.
The group said there is no longer a Homebase homelessness prevention center in Morissania, where 447 families with children resided prior to living in shelters in 2017.
Homebase, a DHS program providing homelessness prevention services to those at risk of eviction, still has centers in several other Bronx neighborhoods.
Citywide, over 20,000 children sleep in homeless shelters nightly, the report states.