page_title: Brownsville, Brooklyn
section_title: Residential development
hierarchical_section_title: Brownsville, Brooklyn / Geography and land use / Residential development
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking east from East New York Avenue and across Strauss Street at Marcus Garvey Houses in en:Brownsville, Brooklyn on a sunny afternoon.
context_page_description: Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie to the south; and East Flatbush to the west.
  The 1.163-square-mile area that comprises Brownsville has 58,300 residents as of the 2010 United States Census. Founded in its current incarnation in 1858, Brownsville was initially a settlement composed of Jewish factory workers. The neighborhood underwent a major demographic change in the 1950s that saw an influx of African-American and Latino residents. Since the late 20th century, Brownsville has consistently held one of the highest poverty and crime rates of any neighborhood in New York City.
  Brownsville is part of Brooklyn Community District 16, and its primary ZIP Codes are 11212 and 11233. It is patrolled by the 73rd Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Politically it is represented by the New York City Council's 42nd and 41st Districts.
context_section_description: As of 2008, there were a total of 28,298 housing units in Brownsville. Brownsville is dominated by public housing developments of various types, mostly in a small area bounded by Powell Street and Rockaway, Livonia, and Sutter Avenues that is composed of multiple inward-facing developments located on six superblocks. The neighborhood contains the most densely concentrated area of public housing in the United States. NYCHA owns more housing units in Brownsville than in any other neighborhood, with about one-third of the housing stock (around 10,000 units) in its 18 Brownsville developments, comprising over 100 buildings within 1 square mile (2.6 km²). In 2013, it was estimated that the housing developments alone contained nearly 21,000 people. Many of these buildings were built in the mid-20th-century and are deteriorating as of 2015. 
  104–114 Tapscott Street; one 4-story building.
  Brownsville Houses; 27 buildings, 6- and 7 stories tall.
  Glenmore Plaza; four buildings, 10, 18 and 24 stories tall.
  Howard Avenue; five buildings, 3 stories tall.
  Howard Avenue-Park Place; eight buildings, 3 stories tall.
  Howard Houses; ten buildings, 7- and 13 stories tall.
  Hughes Apartments; three 22-story buildings.
  Marcus Garvey (Group A); three buildings, 6 and 14 stories tall.
  Ralph Avenue Rehab; five 4-story buildings.
  Reverend Randolph Brown; two 6-story buildings.
  Seth Low Houses; four buildings, 17 and 18 stories tall.
  Sutter Avenue-Union Street; three rehabilitated tenement buildings, 4 and 6 stories tall.
  Tapscott Street Rehab; eight 4-story rehabilitated tenement buildings.
  Tilden Houses; eight 16-story buildings.
  Van Dyke I; 22 buildings, 3 and 14 stories tall.
  Van Dyke II; one 14-story building.
  Woodson Houses; two buildings, 10 and 25 stories tall.
  In addition, below Pitkin Avenue, there is also a significant concentration of semi-detached multi-unit row houses similar to those found in East New York and Soundview surrounding the public housing developments. Many have been torn down and replaced by vacant lots or newly constructed subsidized attached multi-unit rowhouses with gardens, driveways, and finished basements.  Most of these houses were built in East New York, Ocean Hill, and Brownsville under the Nehemiah development program. Of the Nehemiah developments, most of them were built on the western half of the neighborhood. Other newly built or restored housing includes 3,871 housing units for low-income residents, as well as Noble Drew Ali Plaza, a 385-unit apartment building that was notorious for drug dealing before the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) helped New York Mets first baseman Mo Vaughn buy and redevelop the building.
  The Livonia Avenue Initiative, a multi-phase project situated along Livonia Avenue, is intended to create 791 apartments or houses for low-income residents. The initiative includes Livonia Commons, a proposed mixed-use project on the north side of Livonia Avenue. Livonia Commons' postmodern buildings will contain 270 apartments for lower-income citizens and 11,000 square feet (1,000 m²) of commercial space at ground level. The initiative's 21,000 square feet (2,000 m²) of community space will host a senior center and two concentrations of school classrooms, operated by two different groups. There would also be a gym, a swimming pool, a darkroom, and some studios. The entire Livonia Commons project would add 71,700 square feet (6,660 m²) of mixed-use space in multiple buildings. As of 2016, there were 242 apartments being built, in addition to 468 affordable-housing units that had already been built in the East New York/Brownsville area.
  Closer to the border with Ocean Hill, there are many limestone and brownstone townhouses in addition to tenements. In Brownsville, about 71% of rental housing is poorly maintained, more than the citywide rate of 56% and the boroughwide rate of 59%.
caption: Marcus Garvey Houses
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