“Both crime and poverty have remained high, and Brownsville has for years been the focus of nonprofit organizations and city agencies, though not always for the better. One-quarter of the rental stock in Brownsville is public housing, according to New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.
Experts said that has helped concentrate poverty without adequate services, including schools, businesses and social-welfare agencies. “It’s taken the bad end of government policies for 50 years,” said Jerilyn Perine, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council.“
