Uptown Poverty Rates Some Of The Highest In Manhattan: City

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — The Upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill have a higher percentage of households living in poverty than most of the borough, according to a city report released this week.

The Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity's annual poverty report, released Monday, shows that 19.6 percent of households in the uptown neighborhoods were living in poverty last year, which was good for the fourth-highest rate in Manhattan.

Only East Harlem (22.3 percent), Hamilton Heights and West Harlem (20.7 percent) and Central Harlem (20.2 percent) ranked higher than uptown, according to the report. The mayor's office defined poverty as a family of four with an income less than $33,562 per year.

Washington Heights and Inwood's numbers are similar to the city's overall poverty rate of 19 percent, but are much higher than many other Manhattan neighborhoods. Only 7.2 percent of households on the Upper East Side were facing poverty, which gave the neighborhood the lowest rate in Manhattan.

The citywide average poverty rate of 19 percent — indicating nearly one in five New Yorkers was considered poor in 2017 — is the lowest rate since the city's tracking started in 2005, de Blasio's office said.

"The good news in this annual report is that poverty has steadily decreased," wrote Matthew Klein, the executive director of the Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity.

"The data also serve as a reminder, however, that many New Yorkers continue to live in poverty and near poverty."

Patch editors Noah Manskar/Kathleen Culliton contributed to this report.