New Data Shows Higher COVID Rates In NYCHA Than Rest Of Bed-Stuy

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — New York City Housing tenants in Bed-Stuy were more likely to get coronavirus throughout the pandemic than the rest of the neighborhood, and the city as a whole, new data reveals.

Recently-released totals for the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in NYCHA developments across the city show that about 14 percent of public housing tenants in Bed-Stuy came down with the virus between March 2020 and June of this year.

That rate is higher than the coronavirus case rate for any of Bed-Stuy's ZIP codes, the 12 percent rate for the borough of Brooklyn and the city's overall 13 percent case rate, according to city data.

In total, 2,090 of the neighborhood's 14,684 NYCHA tenants have caught COVID-19 during that time span, the data shows.

The Bed-Stuy numbers, and those for all five boroughs, come after the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene resisted calls parse out coronavirus data specific to the city's public housing developments.

The overall totals, first reported by POLITICO, reveal that NYCHA residents caught and died from COVID at a higher rate than the rest of the population. NYCHA residents represent about 5 percent of the city's total COVID-19 cases and 7 percent of the city's total deaths, despite the fact that tenants make up only 4 percent of the city's population, POLITICO reported.

In Bed-Stuy, more than 100 NYCHA tenants died from the coronavirus, according to the data. Deaths were not included in the data for complexes where there were less than five.

The highest case rate in the neighborhood was found at the Ocean Hill Apartments in the eastern corner of the neighborhood, where 16 percent of residents came down with the virus, according to the data. The much larger Sumner Houses were not far behind — 15.7 percent of their 2,234 tenants got coronavirus, data shows.

As far as total cases, the Marcy Houses had by far the largest number, with 623 cases through June. There are 4,068 total tenants at the complex, according to the data.

It should be noted that the city data does not include totals for some of Bed-Stuy's NYCHA complexes, including the Armstrong Houses.

POLITICO noted that the case totals might be even higher given that the city's percentages are based on the number of "authorized NYCHA residents," or about 360,000 citywide. A federal monitor for NYCHA estimates that there may be as many as 600,000 people living in the public housing developments.

Here's a look at the total numbers for each of the Bed-Stuy complexes included in the data:

• 303 Vernon Ave.:
  • 87 cases, 5 deaths, 527 total tenants
• Marcy Houses:
  • 623 cases, 32 deaths, 4,068 total tenants
• Roosevelt Houses I:
  • 243 cases, 14 deaths, 1,783 total tenants
• Roosevelt Houses II:
  • 76 cases, <5 deaths, 697 total tenants
• Saratoga Village:
  • 33 cases, 5 deaths, 297 total tenants
• Sumner Houses:
  • 341 cases, 16 deaths, 2,234 total tenants
• Stuyvesant Gardens I:
  • 107 cases, <5 deaths, 813 total tenants
• Stuyvesant Gardens II:
  • 21 cases, 8 deaths, 164 total tenants
• Tompkins Houses:
  • 364 cases, 17 deaths, 2,752 total tenants
• Bedford-Stuyvesant Rehab:
  • 28 cases, <5 deaths, 196 total tenants
• Kingsborough Extension:
  • 18 cases, 5 deaths, 202 total tenants
• Ocean Hill Apartments:
  • 100 cases, <5 deaths, 625 total tenants
• Sterling Place:
  • 39 cases, <5 deaths, 326 total tenants