The Stanley M. Isaacs Houses (or Isaacs Houses) is a

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

project for those of low-to-moderate incomes located just south of 96th street in the Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville. The Isaacs Houses and the

Holmes Towers The John Haynes Holmes Towers is a public housing project for low income residents of the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side located just south of the neighborhood's northern limit at 96th Street, in New York City, New York, United States. ...

borders

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

, which has the second highest concentration of

in the New York City. The three

buildings in the Yorkville neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, are 24 stories tall and contain 635 apartments. The project is located between 93rd and 95th Streets with playground & ball courts from 95th-97th street, stretching from 1st Avenue to the FDR Drive.

Development

The Isaacs Houses were designed by architects Frederick G. Frost, Jr. & Associates and completed in 1965. They were originally called the

Gerard Swope Gerard Swope (December 1, 1872 – November 20, 1957) was an American electronics businessman. He served as the president of General Electric Company between 1922 and 1940, and again from 1942 until 1945. During this time Swope expanded GE's produ ...

Houses but renamed in 1963 the Isaacs Houses after

Stanley M. Isaacs Stanley M. Isaacs (1882–1962) was a Republican politician from New York City who served as Manhattan Borough President from 1938 to 1941 and later as a member of the New York City Council from 1942 to 1962. He was Minority Leader of the Counc ...

, who served as Manhattan Borough President under Mayor LaGuardia and later in City Council for 20 years as minority leader. 45 percent of the apartments in Isaacs are set aside for tenants over the age of 62. The development has been designated a "high crime zone" by the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

's 19th precinct since the early 2000s, and are thus policed to a higher extent, especially due to the heavy socio-economic mixing of the immediate surrounding area, which includes public housing, working-class small tenement buildings, middle-class medium-size buildings, and upper-middle class to upper-class luxury buildings along 1st avenue in the area. The housing project started as a unique and unprecedented community experiment by selecting many of the initial residents from the local Catholic parish, with assistance of Leyda Jimenez and other community ambassadors involved with the local Catholic Church. While this created a tight-knit, low-crime community for the first few decades of the Isaac Houses’ history, today the houses are known for higher crime rates. In 2018, the Isaacs Houses along with the

and Robbins Plaza, which are all run by the same managers, ranked the worst in the nation after federal inspections by the

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

References

Public housing in Manhattan Residential buildings in Manhattan Residential buildings completed in 1965 Yorkville, Manhattan 1965 establishments in New York City {{Manhattan-struct-stub

Development

See also

References