The NYC Comptroller's office publishes data on eviction filings and marshal-executed evictions. The data is presented through interactive charts showing the geography of evictions across the five boroughs and over time.
According to the Comptroller's analysis, eviction filings and executed evictions concentrate in three specific areas of NYC: upper Manhattan, the southern Bronx, and central Brooklyn. The Comptroller's description of these areas is direct: they are "areas home to more Black and Latino residents and lower-income households compared to the rest of the City."
This pattern has been documented in Comptroller data spanning pre-pandemic conditions, the pandemic-era eviction moratorium (March 2020 to January 2022, when marshal-executed evictions were halted), and the post-moratorium period from 2022 onward. The geographic concentration appears consistently across each of these distinct periods.
What the geography actually shows
The Comptroller's eviction data dashboard maps filings by ZIP code or by individual address. According to the office's published analysis:
Upper Manhattan. Neighborhoods including East Harlem, Central Harlem, Hamilton Heights, and Washington Heights show consistent high filing rates. The median household income in much of this area falls below the citywide median.
The southern Bronx. Neighborhoods including the South Bronx, Highbridge, and surrounding areas show high concentrations. Median household incomes in much of the southern Bronx are among the lowest in NYC.
Central Brooklyn. Neighborhoods including Brownsville, East New York, Crown Heights, and surrounding areas show high concentrations. These are also predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods with median incomes below the citywide median.
The Comptroller's office characterizes the pattern as evidence that eviction is not randomly distributed across NYC. It is concentrated in specific neighborhoods with specific demographic profiles.
What this does not directly establish
The geographic data does not, by itself, establish a causal claim about why evictions cluster where they do. Several distinct explanations are consistent with the data:
— Lower-income tenants face higher risk of rent default. Lower median household income in these neighborhoods correlates with higher rates of unexpected income loss, medical emergencies, and other events that disrupt rent payment. This is a tenant-side explanation.
— Building conditions and landlord practices may differ by neighborhood. Landlords in different neighborhoods may pursue evictions at different rates for similar underlying tenant situations. This is a landlord-side explanation.
— Legal services and tenant defenses may not be evenly distributed. Access to Right to Counsel, the availability of legal aid, the presence of tenant organizing infrastructure — all of these vary by neighborhood. This is a structural explanation.
— Housing stock characteristics may differ. Some neighborhoods have higher concentrations of older buildings, rent-stabilized buildings, or buildings with specific ownership patterns. This affects how disputes between landlords and tenants get resolved.
The Comptroller's data does not directly resolve which of these explanations — or which combination of them — drives the pattern. What the data does establish: the pattern is real, persistent across multiple time periods, and concentrated in neighborhoods with specific demographic and economic profiles.
How the data is used
The geographic concentration data has informed several specific policy decisions at the city level:
Right to Counsel rollout. When NYC's Right to Counsel program for low-income tenants in Housing Court was being phased in (starting 2017), the program was targeted to ZIP codes with the highest eviction rates. The geographic concentration data directly drove the program's rollout sequence.
HPD enforcement targeting. Programs like the Alternative Enforcement Program (covered in a separate analysis) and the recent administrative enforcement actions consider geographic concentration of violations. Many of the 250 AEP buildings are in the same neighborhoods that show high eviction rates.
Tenant legal services geography. Organizations like Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, and Met Council on Housing concentrate their intake capacity in the neighborhoods with highest eviction rates. The geographic concentration data drives capacity planning.
Comptroller's "Evictions Up, Representation Down" report. Comptroller Mark Levine's May 2025 report documented that while evictions had risen post-moratorium, tenant legal representation had not kept pace. The geographic component of that report showed that areas with high eviction filings often face the longest legal services backlogs.
What tenants in these neighborhoods can do
For tenants in neighborhoods with high eviction filing rates, several specific resources apply.
Right to Counsel. NYC's Right to Counsel program provides free legal representation to tenants below certain income thresholds (currently approximately $69,000 for an individual or $138,000 for a family of four, with adjustments for household size). The program operates through Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, and other partner organizations. Eligible tenants in Housing Court eviction cases qualify automatically. Contact: righttocounselnyc.org.
Housing Court Answers. This free resource at housingcourtanswers.org provides plain-language information about Housing Court procedures, defenses, and how to respond to an eviction filing.
The Tenant Helpline. The Met Council on Housing tenant helpline at 212-979-6238 (Monday-Friday, 1:30 PM-5 PM) provides advice for tenants facing eviction or harassment.
JustFix NYC. At justfix.nyc, tenants can access tools for filing 311 complaints, accessing rent regulation history, and connecting with legal services.
Specific organizations in the affected neighborhoods. Organizations like Riseboro, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and others maintain neighborhood-based tenant organizing and advocacy.
What the Mamdani administration has signaled
The Mamdani administration's January 2026 inauguration included a series of executive orders on tenant protections, including:
— Reinvigorating the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, with Cea Weaver as director. — Executive Order 4, requiring identification of city-owned sites suitable for housing development. — The Alternative Enforcement Program updates with the February 250-building list. — SPEED reforms (May 13) aimed at accelerating affordable housing development.
These initiatives focus primarily on supply and enforcement rather than directly on eviction prevention. The Mayor's Office has indicated continued support for Right to Counsel and tenant legal services, but the administration's signature housing initiatives in 2026 have emphasized different areas.
How the new administration's posture affects the eviction map is a question for future data. Whether enforcement initiatives, voucher protections, and broader supply-side measures combine to reduce the geographic concentration of evictions will be measurable in the Comptroller's data over the coming years.
What is unresolved
The geographic pattern of NYC evictions has been documented consistently across years of data, spanning multiple administrations and multiple economic conditions. Whether the pattern can be meaningfully reduced — by enforcement, by tenant support, by income growth, by housing supply, or by some combination — is the larger policy question.
The next data points to watch:
Eviction filings volume. Whether overall eviction filings decline, hold steady, or rise in the coming months tracks the broader rent-burden conditions in the city.
Geographic distribution change. Whether the pattern of concentration shifts — toward broader geographic distribution or further concentration — over time provides one measure of whether policy interventions are reaching the most-affected areas.
Right to Counsel capacity. Whether tenant legal services capacity grows to meet eviction filing volume affects what tenants in high-eviction neighborhoods can do.
HPD enforcement outcomes. Whether enforcement programs like AEP produce measurable improvement in conditions in the same neighborhoods where evictions concentrate.
The Comptroller's data dashboard continues to update. The geography of NYC evictions is published, public, and trackable.
The pattern has held year after year. Whether it continues to hold is the question.
Related: More than a third of these filings come from subsidized affordable housing — and a coalition is backing a dedicated court to change that. See Why a Third of NYC Evictions Happen in "Affordable" Housing.
Sources: NYC Comptroller's Office, "Evictions Filed and Executed" data dashboard at comptroller.nyc.gov/services/for-the-public/charting-homelessness-in-nyc/evictions/; NYC Comptroller's Office, "Evictions Up, Representation Down" report (May 2025); NYC Comptroller Mark Levine public statements and reports; NYC Housing Court public guidance at nycourts.gov; NYC Right to Counsel NYC Coalition at righttocounselnyc.org; Housing Court Answers at housingcourtanswers.org; JustFix NYC at justfix.nyc; statements from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the NYC Mayor's Office on housing policy initiatives (January-May 2026); CBS New York coverage of Mamdani inaugural executive orders (January 2, 2026); NYC HPD AEP announcement (February 8, 2026); NYC Mayor's Office SPEED reform release (May 13, 2026); Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, Met Council on Housing intake guidance.
