As development in NYC picks up pace in the 1900’s, the overall cost of living increases dramatically. Thousands of families were displaced in order for city projects or better housing to be developed. Communities labeled as “slums” were cleared out and these families had to move to projects or less desirable housing. It was also around this time that many non-profit organizations gathered to develop community housing for low income families or people in need. The architecture firm that I worked part-time in deals with many non-profit organizations to develop community housing/low-income housing. Some of these clients are The Bridge, MHANY, Nehemiah H.F.D.C., HPD, Concern for Independent Living, Inc and many others. Some of these institutions were even mentioned in the text.

However, I would like to focus on the Nehemiah community housing. As mentioned in the text, Nehemiah acquired land to develop low-cost single-family homes. In their current Nehemiah Spring Creek project, hundreds of new buildings have been and are being built on what was once vacant land. This land was a former landfill and is located right behind the Erskine mall in East Brooklyn. This piece of land is not as favorable, but is also one of the few remaining pieces of vacant land left in the city. Nehemiah gets its funding from many city agencies for the large amount of buildings being built. This gives these agencies a degree of control over the project, and often with guidelines that the architects have to meet during the design phase. This makes the entire construction project complicated and slow. Funding is often inadequate and certain luxuries must be sacrificed in order to fund the project. Nehemiah now wants two-family or 8-family buildings instead of one-family buildings. Higher-family buildings cost slightly more to build compared to one-family buildings, but since funding from agencies come per unit built, Nehemiah will get more funding to build each building. This is most likely the case for other community housing projects across the city. The increase in cost of land and construction in NYC and other cities makes it very difficult to build uncrowded housing.

Furthermore, many community housing projects are taking place in Long Island than in NYC now. The construction cost and land value is much lower in Long Island than in the city. This further demonstrates how low-income families, minorities, and other communities are slowly being pushed from neighborhoods closer to the city center to the edges of the city or into Long Island.