The median rent in Washington Heights has increased by 40 percent in the past 10 years, with the median rent now reaching nearly $2200. The Dominican Population—that has long settled in Washington Heights—is struggling to keep up.

By Sarah Gotfredsen, Nao Kato, and Misha Vaid

Frustrated by the lack of Latino representation on Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda created ‘In the Heights’, a Tony-winning Broadway musical that was recently made into a motion picture. Having grown up in the neighborhood, Miranda beautifully captures the home of New York’s largest immigrant community that comes from the Dominican Republic. But in Miranda’s attempt to break away from the violent stereotypes about drugs and crime that he says Hollywood perpetuates about associated with the Latino community, he shed light on another issue that is often overlooked: gentrification. The rent spike in the area was not fiction, and data shows that the community has been losing its Hispanic population over the lastfor over a decade.

Washington Heights first became an epicenter for Dominicans back in the 1970s after the fall of a 30-year dictatorship under Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The travel ban preventing Dominicans from adventuring outside the Dominican Republic’s border was lifted, and thousands of Dominicans flocked to New York in search of new opportunities. Back then, Washington Heights was one of the most affordable neighborhoods in NYC, and while it was once a breeding ground for drug and gang activities in the 1980s, this barrio has become a cultural hub for the Hispanic populations in Nueva York.

But today, Washington Heights is no longer the affordable option it used to be for Dominicans longing to live by their cultural roots. The median rent in Washington Heights has increased more than 40 percent from $1550 in 2010 to $2195 in 2021, based on data from StreetEasy. In comparison, the median rent in Manhattan overall increased by just 20 percent.

The skyrocketing rent prices have motivated part of the Hispanic population, which primarily consists of working-class and middle-class people, to look outside Manhattan for more affordable housing. In fact, according to the 2010 and 2020 Census, the Manhattan Community District 12, which includes Washington Heights and Inwood, was the only district in Manhattan that saw a decline in its population by 5 percent.

Maria Nievas, a warehouse worker and mother of two, moved to Washington Heights 20 years ago from the Dominican Republic. But last year, she was forced to leave her two-bedroom apartment after the rent increased to $2,300. While she feels emotionally and culturally attached to Washington Heights, she wanted a more affordable and spacious place for her family:

“In Pennsylvania, I could afford to live in a five-bedroom house. I could also find a good job there with an hourly wage of $20,” Nievas said, who now lives in a city called Lebanon in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania.

Nievas’s story has become a reality for many Dominicans who have been long-time residents of Washington Heights and whose parents or grandparents first immigrated to the U.S decades ago.

Between 2010 and 2020, the Hispanic population in the Manhattan Community District 12 decreased 15 percent from 134,976 to 117,244 individuals. At the same time, the white population increased 12 percent from 33,442 to 38,222 individuals, according to the U.S Census.