Disposition of City-owned property will facilitate development of eightstory, 65-unit project for low-income seniors and special needs residents. On October 19, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to facilitate the construction of a 65-unit supportive housing project, known as El Rio Residence, in the West Farms section of the Bronx. Comunilife Inc., a non-profit health care agency, plans to develop the eight-story project on a 2,200 sq.ft. portion of a City-owned lot next to a building at 2064 Boston Road owned by Comunilife. The site is two blocks from the Bronx Zoo and the Bronx River Art Center. To facilitate the project, HPD requested permission to dispose of the property to Comunilife.

El Rio Residence would provide 29 affordable studio apartments for low-income seniors and 36 studios for seniors with mental illness. The project would include a 2,422 sq.ft. landscaped open space and a multipurpose room. Supportive services, including a communal kitchen and laundry room, would occupy the building’s ground floor.

Bronx Community Board 6 and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. supported the proposal. No one opposed the proposal at the Commission’s October 5 public hearing, and the Commission unanimously approved the plan.

CPC: El Rio Residence (C 110365 HAX – UDAAP and dispo.) (Oct. 19, 2011) (Architect: Gran Kriegel Associates Architects + Planners).

HPD-funded affordable housing projects approved without opposition. On November 30, 2010, the City Council approved separate proposals by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to allow private developers to build two permanently affordable supportive housing projects on city-owned properties in the East Village.

HPD selected the Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association (LESPMHA) to develop a 46-unit eight-story building on a vacant site at 535 East 11th Street, and the Phipps Houses Group to build a 45-unit five-story building on a site occupied by a vacant four-story building at 706 East 9th Street. Both projects will provide housing for formerly homeless individuals with psychiatric disabilities. (more…)

Developer revised plan to include low-income apartments for women with children. On November 17, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s revised proposal to allow Providence House to build a six-story supportive housing project at 329 Lincoln Road in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Brooklyn. HPD recently demolished a four-story building on the site which had remained vacant for 30 years. Providence House’s original proposal included twenty studio apartments for single women transitioning from homeless shelters or prison, five studios for low-income single women earning less than 60 percent of the area’s median income, and one studio for the building’s superintendent. (more…)

New project would house women transitioning from shelters or hospitals; opponents expressed concerns about project’s impact on neighborhood. On August 25, 2010, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow Providence House to develop a six-story, 26-unit supportive housing project at 329 Lincoln Road in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Brooklyn. Providence House, established by the Sisters of Saint Joseph, provides supportive and transitional housing for homeless and formerly institutionalized women. HPD recently demolished a four-story building on the site that had remained vacant for thirty years.

Providence House would provide twenty apartments to single women transitioning from shelters and hospitals. Five units would be marketed to low-income single women earning less than 60 percent of the area’s median income, and one unit would be occupied by the building’s superintendent. To facilitate the project, HPD requested permission to dispose of the City-owned property and applied for a special permit allowing an increase in the building’s maximum floor area. (more…)

On May 24, 2023, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development joined project partners Services for the Underserved and Bronx Pro Group LLC to celebrate a housewarming for the newly opened Jerome Court redevelopment. Located at 1769 Jerome Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, the space was transformed from a two-story single-use occupancy building to a 16-story mixed use building with supportive and affordable housing. (more…)