Dr. Blackstock refers to social distancing as "unrealistic” in “our communities.”

 

“We do have high rates of crowding within our housing units," Dr. Blackstock says, "even though people try to do their best, they're wearing masks at home and trying to wash their hands, I think that some of the mitigating inventions that we have seen that have helped, which is mainly physical and social distancing, is just not a reality in our communities. This requires a higher level of intervention on the part of the local and federal government.”

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Politico refers to a link between New York City’s most overcrowded apartments and the spread of the coronavirus, stating “in neighborhoods that have become virus hot spots in recent weeks — such as Corona in Queens, Borough Park in Brooklyn and Fordham in the Bronx — as many as 1 in 5 residents live in crowded apartments, generally defined by the city as more than one person per room.”

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Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite, refers to social distancing as “an economic luxury.” that many can’t afford, especially if they are living in apartments with elevators and maintenance equipment that breaks down frequently. 

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“We know that their elevators are routinely down.” says Johnson “If you only have 2 elevators in a building and you have a high quantity of folks in the building and they happen to ride an elevator together, ...social distancing or at least physical distancing, they are more vulnerable to catch the virus.”

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One of the precautions, 32BJ’s member Paduani takes is to avoid the elevator altogether. 

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“Only two to three people are allowed in the elevator at a time to go up or down, most of us use the stairs because we live on the lower floors, so we can use the stairs.”

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When asked, if there is a fear in riding the elevators, Paudani explains “yeah, because you have to wait in the lobby for so long, the longer you wait the more people come in so it makes it that much more crowded for you to go up or down.”

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There has been ongoing controversy regarding the safety of tenants in New York City’s Housing Authority (NYCHA).

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According to NYCHA, more than 250 employees have gotten sick and six have died.

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NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in the nation, with 326 developments spanning across all five NYC boroughs. 

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According to Politico, the Bronx has 75 residential developments that have 41,831 apartments with 94,773 residents living in them. 

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“It’s a really dense population that has not been given the attention that it needs from its landlords, who are the city and federal government, making sure that their obligation to give them sound and happy living conditions exist,” Johnson says. 

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In response, the state began aiding NYCHA with its fight against the spread of COVID-19.

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New York State partnered with a home health care provider, Ready Responders, to perform door to door testing. NY State Assemblymember Michael Blake (D) accompanied the Ready Responders when they geared up to enter Jackson Houses in The Bronx, at the end of April. 

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Michael Blake says the residents “were appreciative that someone was checking on them.”

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Although the testing was “appreciated,” Blake was adamant “that we need more, and we need it faster.” 

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“It’s not possible for us to have a full assessment of everything if not everyone has not been tested....” says Blake “In large part, the numbers are not real of what’s being reported publicly, we don’t know how many people are still sick, we don’t know how many people still need help, we don’t know how many people are actually positive. so, the core thing is why do we always have to wait, why are we always waiting for an answer? It's frustrating for us and unacceptable to us.”

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Dr. Uche Blackstock, Brooklyn medical physician and founder of Advanced Equity, believes that although there are limited resources and tests, they should be geared towards the heavily impacted communities. 

  

“We know that there is limited testing availability, we know that a lot of the private companies are rationing out tests, so those testing supplies need to be targeted at the communities that are impacted the most right now,” says Blackstock.

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Blackstock mentions other ways of controlling the spread of the virus instead of social distancing. The health intervention she refers to as “contact tracing,” which is defined by the CDC as “trace and monitor contacts of infected people.”

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“The fact is that we really should be having widespread testing,” says Dr. Blackstock. “That's really why China, South Korea, Germany, and all these other countries have been able to control the spread of coronavirus because when you test people you know who is positive ….and you know who is negative and those are the people who can actually go out. And so we really need to do that here in the United States, honestly, we have an incredibly efficient and broken healthcare system.” 

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Among the broken healthcare system that is affecting the spread of COVID-19 in minority communities, there is another large factor contributing to the structural issues within lower-income communities which is environmental racism.