Red Hook, Brooklyn Unemployment

Red Hook Brooklyn is a unique community in NYC. Red Hook has a population of 11,071, according to the American Community Survey (ACS). Of that number, 7,412 people are located in the Red Hook Houses, one of the largest public housing developments in New York City.

The Red Hook Houses, completed in 1939, were built on the location of a “Hooverville,” a shantytown built by the homeless during the Great Depression. Originally conceived of as clean, safe, and modern communities, these public housing developments were meant to be a response to the poor conditions found in tenements and shantytowns.

However, shortly after the completion of the Red Hook Houses, Red Hook was separated from the rest of South Brooklyn by the construction of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Red Hook is isolated to this day because public transportation is severely confined. Considered a "Two Fare Zone," Red Hook is one of the few neighborhoods in NYC without a subway, and there is only one bus line, making commutes for work lengthy and arduous. Water ferry service was added in the early 2000s but is expensive and not an effective means of commuting for most of the working class in Red Hook. As a result, Red Hook, although less than 5 miles from Lower Manhattan, remains isolated from the rest of the city for many of its residents.

In its isolation, it portrays the clear relationships and contrasts between unemployment, race, income, homeownership, property value, and health outcomes. While the community is 37% Black, 31% Latinx/Hispanic and only 22% White, The overwhelming majority of Black and Brown people reside in the Red Hook Houses, and the white population lives almost exclusively in the surrounding and gentrifying neighborhood. Both unemployment and wages divide dramatically along the same lines, as do health consequences, as illustrated with asthma prevalence.

There are 3 tiers of unemployment in Red Hook:

The Red Hook Houses have average unemployment ranging from 29 to 37%

The blocks closest to the houses have unemployment ranging from 9 to 14%

The rest of the community has unemployment ranging from 2 to 6%

On the face of it, Red Hook appears to be a diverse community, however, closer examination shows sharply segregated divides with the majority of Black/ African American, Latinx/ Hispanic, and Asian communities living in the Red Hook Houses, as opposed to the surrounding community.

Red Hook, Entire Community:

Black/ African American 36.81%

Latinx/ Hispanic: 31.48%

White: 21.56%

Asian: 3.32%

Other/ Unidentified: 6.8%

Percentage of Entire Community located in the Red Hook Houses:

Black/ African American: 88.76%

Latinx/ Hispanic: 77.9%

Asian: 81.52%

White: 5.6%

As illustrated in the previous map, the majority of communities of color located in Red Hook, live in the Red Hook Houses, NYC Public Housing, with strict income limitations. The majority of the white population live in the surrounding neighborhood, with exponentially higher incomes, rates of employment, home ownership and health security.

Red Hook is divided into 4 census tracts.

The Red Hook Houses are one tract, with a median income of 16,000.00.  

In sharp contrast, the average median income of the other three tracts is 110,233.00.

The median home value in Red Hook is worth between 1-1.5 million dollars. The Red Hook Houses are all rental units, renting from a range of 300.00-2,000.00 on average depending on income. Most rent is calculated at 30% of income, which is 16,000. (median) in the Red Hook Houses, yielding an average median rent of 400.00

Red Hook Brooklyn, while not identified as a hot spot cluster for asthma, has a high prevalence of 9.8% in much of the community. However, the prevalence amongst the Red Hook Houses residents is 14.4%, one of the highest in the city, second only to a community in the Bronx. The high occurrence of asthma and other respiratory issues has often been attributed to the proximity of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, however, the large difference between prevalence in the Red Hook Houses and the surrounding neighborhood illustrates clearly how other factors, like income, employment and access to healthcare impact and exacerbate vulnerability to health concerns like asthma, even when exposure is similar.

When examining recession levels of unemployment, only the Red Hook Houses tract showed levels above 10%, at 33%. Economic downturns like a recession will impact those with the lowest incomes and lower paying jobs first, and most severely. Given the already high level of unemployment, and low wages, even small economic downturns can have catastrophic results with so many people surviving on so little income.

The population of the Red Hook Houses represents 67% of Red Hook.

Unemployment in the Red Hook Houses is recorded at an average of 33%, however, the potential workforce (over 18, under 65) from which unemployment is calculated is only 64% of the (Red Hook Houses) population. With unemployment at 33%, we have a 28% of the entire community of Red Hook responsible for supporting 67% of the entire community. When we factor in the average income of those employed at 16,000. the ramifications of this disparity, and weight on those Red Hook Houses residents who are employed is profound.

Many neighborhoods in New York City are diverse, and often have neighbors with wildly divergent circumstances abutting one another. However the vast majority of the city experiences a degree of fluidity as one neighborhood flows into another. Transportation options are plentiful, and it is not uncommon for work to carry one to completely different neighborhoods than one lives in. However, the community of Red Hook is unique. By design it has both a large permanent low income population, as home to one of the largest New York City Public Housing developments: Red Hook Houses, and also by design, it is cut off from the rest of the city with both a large expressway (Brooklyn Queens Expressway), and minimal public transportation.

Historically Red Hook has been a working class neighborhood, so while divisions between the residents of the Red Hook Houses and the surrounding area have always existed, they have never been as pronounced as they are now. Over the past 3 decades Red Hook has gone from being labeled the "Crack Capital of America" by Life magazine in 1988 to a place drawing artists and creatives settling in the boarded up shops in the late 90s and early 2000s, and now a gentrified community with multimillion dollar homes next door to the Red Hook Houses. Although there have been concerted efforts to create a unified community, and a large group of non profits have flourished attempting to bridge the unmet needs of the community, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the chasm between the residents continues to grow, and is made more pronounced by the close proximity, isolated from the rest of the city.

In this unique microcosm is abundantly clear the role decent employment plays, and its impact on a community overall. Each of the factors we examined neatly line up upon one another, and the mapping allows us to see the self perpetuating cycles. Racial disparity, income and wealth inequality, health and wellbeing disparity, access to transportation and public services, all are impacted and exacerbated by unemployment, and in a negative feedback loop, these conditions create higher barriers to gainful employment and perpetuate long term unemployment, which in turn reinforces the disparities. The manner in which both public housing was created and placed, as well as the division of communities with the construction of expressways has long been a topic of research in relation to systemic racism, and class disadvantage in NYC. Red Hook shows exactly how those issues served to separate and disenfranchise People of Color, and successful it has been, decades later, with multiple barriers to employment reinforcing and perpetuating the negative conditions.

Red Hook is a perfect illustration of why a jobs guarantee is needed. The relationship between historic and systemic discrimination, barriers to access, and gainful, meaningful, well paid employment are clear.