Bronx residents at three buildings in Melrose will now be able to connect to the Internet to do homework, keep up with friends, or simply stream silly cat videos, thanks to a new program that allows them free access to the Internet.
The Bronx community development corporation Nos Quedamos (We Stay) partnered with the New York Public Library (NYPL) to launch Connect4Change, the pilot program trying to bridge the Bronx’s digital divide by providing building-wide broadband access to tenants in some of the nonprofit’s affordable housing developments.
Garfield Swaby, NYPL’s vice president of information technology said the program is one of several programs NYPL is testing out to address disparities in the connectivity of low-income New Yorkers. Swaby told the Bronx Times that the Connect4Change network differs from other approaches to providing low-cost internet because it covers an entire building rather than giving a reduced rate for an individual household based on financial needs.
“ Here is an approach that it doesn’t include going to the usual suspects,” Swaby said. “It relies on anchor organizations like ourselves working with the community and delivering internet service in a non-traditional but effective way.”
To date, “traditional” methods have had limited success in closing the digital divide in the Bronx. A recent report from the Center for an Urban Future found that more than one in five households in the Bronx lacked access to the internet, and many more homes relied solely on data plans from their smartphones for online access, leaving the Boogiedown as the least connected borough in the city.
The borough’s connectivity hurdle is heightened by the cost burden, which is nearly twice that of Manhattan.
According to the Center for an Urban Future, households in the Bronx spend a greater percentage of their yearly income on internet access, about 1.1% compared to .53% in Manhattan.
It’s one issue that Nos Quedamos Housing Organizer Melanie Reyes, who works on the Connect4Change project, said she heard repeatedly in the resident surveys the nonprofit conducted ahead of the project.
“ That was one of the biggest benefits of the project— not only providing people with wifi who maybe didn’t have it before, but mainly just saving them another internet bill,” Reyes said.
Maurice Jones, a lifelong Bronxite and father of four who lives in one of the buildings, told the Bronx Times that he’s not quite ready to ditch his subscription to Verizon just yet, but that eventually, when the Connect4Change network gets stronger, he hopes to eliminate the expense altogether.
Jones said he wasn’t hard-pressed to find other ways to spend the cash he would save.
“ I could be saving money for college because I still have a little one,” Jones said. “It could go to a college bill, it could go to a food bill, we could go out and have a good time. I can take them to an amusement park. That money can be used in so many different ways.”
But for now, Jones said his internet consumption is too much to rely solely on the new Connect4Change network.
“ I have a college student, and a high school student, so they are online,” Jones said. “There’s so much internet being used in this house.”
Jones is acutely aware of how access to the Internet can be crucial for a family with school-aged children.
“ Everything is online, you know, it’s necessary for us here,” Jones said. “That’s just the way of the world today.”
He works as an Assistant to a Dean at a school and told the Bronx Times that while educators and administrators do everything they can to help students without reliable internet access, school-aged children without at-home broadband are disadvantaged.
“ The students do have to go home,” Jones said. “And that’s the thing— they offer services as far as internet in school— but kids do have to go home, and this homework needs to be done online. If they don’t have [internet] access, that can be frustrating, can be stressful.”
Reyes said that Nos Quedamos has already seen the impact in data reports compiled by the WiFi provider, Sky Packets, which showed many school and education websites visited.
“The reports have been great,” Reyes said. “The numbers [of users] are rising as the weeks go by, and the message is getting spread, and people are sharing the network with their neighbors, and when they have guests over.”
But Swaby told the Bronx Times that connectivity isn’t the project’s only goal. The digital divide extends beyond access to the internet, and he hopes that Connect4Change can also help residents access tools for digital literacy. The NYPL and Nos Quedamos already offer technology programming, but Swaby envisions something more integrated within the Connect4Change network.
“As the tech person, my job is just to lay the roads,” Swaby said. “The more important aspect is how to ensure that tenants get the support that they need to learn how to get online— things like digital stewardship and digital navigation.”
