Both those figures might look modest to many New Yorkers. But for residents in one of the poorest areas in the city, where people can least afford any hike in their living costs, they can be intolerable.

In that same five-year period, the number of families from Highbridge and Grand Concourse entering shelters jumped by a third, to 633 in 2010--the second-highest number in any community-board jurisdiction in the city, according to the U.S. Census.Many observers say these neighborhoods have entered a period of gentrification, yet most agree it is one that differs markedly from what has been seen in recent years in such fast--rising Brooklyn neighborhoods as Bushwick and Crown Heights. Up in the Bronx, the new wave of so-called gentrifiers are actually not that much better off than the people they are replacing. That is why median incomes rose to $26,731 in 2010—about half the income level considered very low by federal housing standards for a family of four in New York City—up from $23,179 in 2005."We're not seeing stockbrokers moving here," said José Rodriguez, district manager of Bronx Community Board 4, which includes the Highbridge and Grand Concourse areas, although the percentage of residents with a bachelor's degree did shoot up by nearly 40%, indicating a greater presence of young professionals and/or those with higher earning potential.Unlike the gentrification experienced in parts of Brooklyn and upper Manhattan, the South Bronx variation of the theme has brought less of an ethnic shift. In Highbridge and the Grand Concourse, the ethnic mix remains much as it was, with Hispanics representing about 60% of the population and African Americans at about 33% during the same five-year period, the census showed."This is gentrification on a lower level," said Ralph da Costa Nunez, president of the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness.Although a stretch of Bruckner Boulevard centered around the Clocktower Building in neighboring Port Morris seems to defy that conclusion with its artist lofts and trendy restaurants, that enclave is very small and highly atypical of the South Bronx.Despite how little the needle has moved by some measures in Highbridge and Grand Concourse, the impact on low-income families has still been wrenching, forcing many into the city's shelter and supportive-housing system.