A New Program Helps New York’s Public-Housing Residents Discover the Nature Right Outside Their Doors

On a sweltering June afternoon outside the Cooper Park Houses in Brooklyn, a small group peer through binoculars at a flock of pigeons in a nearby tree. Tour leader Yamina Nater-Otero hands out field guides in English and Spanish and explains that pigeons’ distinct markings make them ideal for practicing bird identification skills. But you don’t need to be able to identify birds to enjoy birding, Nater-Otero assures the group.

The gathering is open to the general public, just like hundreds of other outings the NYC Bird Alliance runs throughout the city every year. In this case, though, there’s a very specific target audience: people who live in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) affordable housing, a group that includes more than 500,000 residents, or 1 in 17 New Yorkers. The pilot program’s leaders aim to introduce birding—and its physical, mental, and emotional benefits—to a broader swath of city residents and cultivate environmental stewards along the way.

The NYCHA in Nature program came about in 2023 as a partnership with the Public Housing Community Fund, a nonprofit that supports programming for NYCHA residents. Alex Zablocki, the organization’s executive director, knew that NYCHA complexes are remarkably rich in green space and include roughly 1,000 acres of urban forest. Having collaborated with the NYC Bird Alliance previously, he wanted to connect the group’s avian experts with public-housing tenants to help them learn about the birds right outside their doors.

Since then, the two groups, with support from several other local organizations, have held outings at 16 campuses, often followed by a walk to a nearby park or waterfront. “We’re bringing it to where people are, right where they live,” Zablocki says.

Still, making participants feel welcomed into birding takes time and effort, says Saman Mahmood, director of advocacy and engagement for NYC Bird Alliance. Only four people attended the Cooper Park Houses walk in June, the first one on that campus. Around 75 people in total have joined the outings so far. Birding and other nature-based activities have historically catered to a white and affluent crowd. Around 95 percent of NYCHA residents are people of color, and most deal with significant financial hardship.

Each community is different, so to make the events as inviting as possible, the organizers rely on residents’ input to optimize the program’s timing and format. Their ideas have led to a walk offered in Mandarin and Cantonese on one campus and a bird “sit” on another that’s home to elderly tenants.

Along with a sense of community, birding offers a host of benefits, including exercise. At the Hudson Guild-Fulton Community Center, which primarily serves Manhattan’s Fulton and Eliott Houses, program leader Jenn Rosas has found that bird walks offer a more accessible way to move than joining one of the fitness classes offered there. Participants have also said the experience helped them take note of the city’s nature and feel peaceful, Rosas says. She’s found that, once introduced to a park they hadn’t felt comfortable visiting on their own, residents are more likely to return in the future.

NYCHA in Nature’s leaders hope to someday involve more of the city’s 335 public-housing campuses, with the goal of training residents to lead walks in their own communities, but for now they’re focusing on building the existing campus programs. As far as Zablocki knows, the program is the first of its kind, and its leaders hope that it can serve as a model for other cities.

Unlike some efforts aimed at connecting underresourced communities with nature, such as initiatives to improve public transit to more distant parks or add natural features to city playgrounds, these walks take place in convenient green spaces that already exist—residents just need to learn they’re there. “There has been a historical tendency to think of nature as Yosemite, the redwoods, the Tetons,” says Melanie Robinson, a program manager at the National League of Cities. But in fact, “nature use looks different to everyone, and each version of it is valid.”

Even “ordinary” encounters with nature can be life-changing, Mahmood says. “Somebody saw a Blue Jay and was, like, completely blown away,” she remembers. On another walk, four kids spotted a Yellow-crowned Night Heron and ran to share the news with their grandparents. The hope is that such moments can translate into advocacy on behalf of the city’s environment. “You can only protect what you love,” says Mahmood. “And when New Yorkers love something, they’ll go to the end of the world for it.”

This story originally ran in the Fall 2025 issue as “The Birds Next Door.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.