City to Add 200 Affordable Units for Seniors on NYCHA Land in Crown Heights

A new development planned for a section of the New York City Housing Authority’s Kingsborough campus in Crown Heights will include 200 apartments for seniors, a food pantry, senior and community teaching kitchen, and more, according to the city.

The 13-story Weeksvillage will be developed in a partnership between the city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development, Housing Development Corporation, and NYCHA, and the nonprofit affordable housing developer CAMBA Housing Ventures.

Construction will be funded with tax exempt bonds and the housing will be created under the city’s Senior Affordable Rental Apartments Program and Extremely Low & Low-Income Affordability program, which ensure longterm affordability, according to the city’s Request for Proposal. CAMBA will have a 99-year ground lease, and the development will rise on Bergen Street in what is now open green space next to an existing senior high rise at 447 Kingsborough 4 Walk on the NYCHA campus.

NYCHA’s Kingsborough Houses opened in 1941 in an area that in the 19th century was the free Black town of Weeksville. Across the street from the complex are the historic Hunterfly Road houses and the Weeksville Heritage Center.

Of the new development’s planned 200 units, 156 will be studios, 43 will be one-bedroom apartments, and one will be a home for a superintendent. There will be 60 set aside for seniors who were formerly homeless and 35 will be for local NYCHA residents.

To be eligible for the apartments, seniors must earn at or below 50 percent of the area median income, or $49,450 for a household of one person. Section 8 project-based vouchers will be made available to all households, the city said in a press release Thursday.

The plan for the development was informed by local residents through a series of meetings, which culminated in a visioning document presented in the city’s request for proposals. Kingsborough residents said they wanted to ensure homes were affordable and accessible for seniors; safety, security, and pedestrian access was improved; healthcare was made available; and food access increased.

CAMBA will run a health screening center, senior and community teaching kitchen, food pantry, and small business development center in the new building.

The building will also include a lounge and game area, multipurpose room with an outdoor plaza, community rooms, library, computer room, indoor decks, and roof deck. A fitness center will connect to an outdoor terrace with a social deck, exercise and stretching area, and walking loop.

The development will be built to Passive House standards and have Enterprise Green Communities (EGC) 2020 and other green-building certifications.

Unlike many new affordable housing developments, Weeksvillage ditches the boxy frontage for a balconied red brick design that includes an exposed truss and touches of greenery. According to the press release, the building aims to fit in with the existing Kingsborough campus and townhouses on Bergen Street.

Weeksvillage isn’t the first affordable housing development to be operated by third party developers on NYCHA land. RiseBoro Community Partnership Inc., Selfhelp Realty Group Inc., and Urban Builders Collaborative LLC are currently working on a new development on land in NYCHA’s Sumner Houses complex in Bed Stuy. In 2018, an 18-story development topped out for LGBTQ seniors in Fort Greene, built by BFC Partners and SAGE on land in NYCHA’s Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses. In 2014, developer L&M Partners bought a 50 percent stake in Saratoga Square NYCHA senior housing complex at 930 Halsey Street in Ocean Hill and other NYCHA properties as part of a scheme to repair the buildings in exchange for federal subsidies.

Some of those operators, including CAMBA, were in the spotlight recently for filing eviction notices against some of their most vulnerable tenants. The organizations argue the practice is necessary to recoup money for voucher programs from the city, while critics say it puts tenants in a scary and stressful situation.

Mayor Eric Adams said in the press release the city has to be creative to provide housing in the midst of “a severe housing shortage.” “The Weeksvillage project brings together underutilized NYCHA land with city financing to deliver exactly that housing need,” Adams said.

“At the same time, we are building so much more than housing. These homes will support not only residents’ financial health, but also their public and mental health as well as environmental health — creating the kind of high-quality living environment all New Yorkers deserve.”

Related Stories

• Mayor Plans Thousands of New Apartments on NYCHA Land in Brooklyn
• City to Build New Affordable Housing on NYCHA Land in Fort Greene and Brownsville
• Housing for LGTBQ Seniors on NYCHA Land Tops Out in Fort Greene

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