Photo by David Greene
Jason Holloman, 42, has lived in Norwood for the last 15 years. He is a husband, father and recently became a grandfather. He was furloughed in March from his care coordinator role at BHRAGS Home Care Corp., where staff was initially cut by a quarter after the pandemic hit, and later by half.
“We help seniors find aides to help them in their home,” he said, explaining that he often works with seniors in low-income neighborhoods, who are on dialysis or who can’t cook, clean or get around at home.
Holloman said [prior to the pandemic] he would see a lot of seniors walking around the neighborhood, or getting around in a wheelchair because they didn’t know that they were entitled to home help.
“So, I would be the person that will come to you to explain to you the benefits of getting help,” he said. “I’m the person who actually goes and finds those people who need help, so I do a lot of community work with a lot of seniors, with a lot of doctors, with a lot of active community agencies.”
Holloman is not alone. Data shows that Norwood is among the areas of New York City most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdown, both economically, and from a health perspective.
A new study by the Center for an Urban Future published on May 19, 2020, finds that the economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic are falling disproportionately on communities of color in the boroughs outside of Manhattan, and that Norwood is one of the worst hit.
The report shows that there are four industry sectors where layoffs have been most prevalent since the pandemic hit —restaurants, hotels, retail, and personal care services.
Workers in these sectors make up just under a quarter (24 percent) of employed residents in both Norwood and Highbridge in the Bronx. The same is true in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and in Flushing, Queens.
Meanwhile, in Corona, Queens, an actual quarter of the employed residents work in these four impacted sectors, and in Elmhurst, Queens, over a quarter do (27 percent).
In contrast, fewer than 10 percent of employed residents in both the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and in Park Slope in Brooklyn work in restaurants, hotels, retail, and personal care services.
In fact, 13 City neighborhoods where at least 20 percent of employed residents work in these hard-hit sectors, are located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens or in Northern Manhattan, according to the report. All 13 have a higher share of non-white residents than the City average.
In all 13 neighborhoods, at least 71 percent of the population is non-white, and in five of the 13, at least 90 percent is non-white. Meanwhile, in nine of the 13 impacted neighborhoods, at least 45 percent of the population is foreign-born.
In contrast, in the five City neighborhoods with the lowest share of residents working in these four hard-hit industries, the population is at least 64 percent white, and no more than 25 percent is foreign born.
Photo by smit5334 via Flickr
Other findings in the report include the following:
- On a borough level, while more than half of the jobs (51 percent) in these four hard-hit industries are physically located in Manhattan, 81 percent of the workers in these sectors live in the four other boroughs. As one example, 101,511 Bronx residents work in these fields, though the borough is home to barely half the jobs (51,183).
- Over a quarter million (304,413) jobs in these four hard-hit sectors are physically located in Manhattan. However, just over a third of these jobs (113,958) are filled by Manhattan residents.
Ironically, the pandemic and resulting shutdown has precluded Holloman from helping those most in need. Since seniors fall into the high-risk category for contracting COVID-19, he said a lot of them don’t want their aides coming into their homes anymore.
“So, it’s like a rock and a hard place,” he said. “I can’t go and say, ‘Hey, I can get an aide for you’. No, I sit in; my job is stuck.” Holloman said all he can do now is wait until the pandemic is over.
“Until then, we can’t do anything because they don’t want their aides, and the aides don’t want to go into somebody’s home, even though they’ll be properly tested,” he said. “You know, my company does provide proper testing to all the aides, but some aides, they don’t want to take the risk.”
Holloman said he is his family’s breadwinner and that his son, who just became a father, has also been furloughed recently from another company.
“I’m getting unemployment, thank God for that, but I don’t know how long that’s gonna be because obviously there has to be some economic packages that have to be passed to extend the unemployment,” Holloman said. “I don’t want to be one of those people to depend on unemployment. I’d rather work.”
But economics is not the only measure by which Norwood has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistics collated from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that Norwood / Olinville ZIP code 10467 still has the second highest number of actual COVID-19 cases in the City with 3,179 as of May 19, just behind Corona, Queens which has 4,242 actual cases.
Out of 7,929 people who have been tested in Norwood / Olinville, as of May 19, over a third tested positive (3,179 people). As above, the only larger group was in Corona, Queens, where out of 8,851 people who were tested, as of May 19, just under half tested positive (4,242 people).
Table courtesy of New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Meanwhile, out of the 177 ZIP codes listed in another dataset by the City’s health department as of May 19, 2020, Norwood / Olinville ranks 21st in terms of positive cases per capita, meaning that there were 3,154 positive cases per 100,000 residents. The ZIP code with the highest per capita rate of infection as of May 19 was West Queens (ZIP code 11369). It has 4,130 positive cases per 100,000 residents.
Holloman said he understands that his health is the most important thing. “I know everybody’s thinking about money, paying bills, but if your health is not correct, then you can’t do any of it,” he said. “I’m healthy but, you know, I definitely want to go back to work rather than sit and wait.”
Referring to his former manager, and his prospects of being re-hired, he said, “Right now, last time I spoke to him, he’s like, ‘Nothing yet,’ so.”
The Center for an Urban Future is an independent think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity in New York City. Click here to view the full report, titled “Bearing the Brunt: Where NYC’s Hard-Hit Sector Workers Live”.
For anyone searching for employment, some open positions are listed here.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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