The Lower East Side of Manhattan is home to some of the oldest and most storied charities in the country, founded at the dawn of the Progressive era. University Settlement, established in 1886, opened one of the first public baths in New York City. In 1893, Henry Street Settlement began offering health care to neighborhood residents; it later hosted the reception that opened the N.A.A.C.P.’s first conference.
Today, New Yorkers in need continue to depend on these charities for housing assistance, child and elder care, food security, education and employment training. Yet poverty on the Lower East Side has been increasing for decades, and Manhattan has the most unequal income distribution of any large county in America.
Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan
Read the full article by Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan in The New York Times
