When Gentrification Is a Mental Health Issue

Gentrification can be hazardous to your health, according to a team of New York City researchers. Their recently published study finds that hospitalization rates for mental illness—including schizophrenia and mood disorders—are two times as high in displaced people versus those who remain in their neighborhood. It is one of the first U.S. studies to quantify the hidden mental health consequences of gentrification.

The potential public health implications are significant: Nearly a million people are at risk of being priced out of their homes in New York City alone. National numbers reveal that gentrification is greatly accelerating. Since 2000, 20 percent of low-income neighborhoods gentrified in the 50 largest cities in the country (compared to 9 percent in the 1990s) with the highest number of gentrifying census tracts located in New York City.