Mayor Adams Celebrates Opening of Deeply Affordable Housing Site, City's Progress Moving New Yorkers from Shelters to Permanent Homes

December 23, 2024

Bronx Building With 63 High-Quality Homes for New Yorkers With CityFHEPS Vouchers is Latest in City's Efforts to Create Nearly 900 Permanent Subsidized Apartments for Households in Shelter

More Homeless New Yorkers Connected to Subsidized Permanent Housing Than Any Year in Recent History

New York – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Wasow Park today celebrated the opening of a new Affordable Housing Services (AHS) site in the Bronx, marking the creation of nearly 400 high-quality, deeply affordable homes for New Yorkers in shelter through the ground-breaking AHS initiative in 2024. The opening is the latest achievement in the Adams administration's efforts to get New Yorkers off of the streets, out of shelters, and into permanent, affordable homes. In Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), DSS helped a record more than 18,500 households move out of shelters and into stable homes — 24 percent more than the year before. Further, a record number of New Yorkers used City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) vouchers to obtain permanent housing or stay in their homes.

"A home is more than just a place for a family to rest their heads at night — it's the skeleton key to unlocking the American Dream of stable, secure housing and a pathway to the middle class. With today's announcement, we are taking unhoused New Yorkers from the streets and shelters and placing them into stable housing, bringing them one step closer to turning that American Dream into a reality," said Mayor Adams. "With the opening of this new building, our administration is continuing to deliver on our promise to quickly build high-quality, affordable housing in parts of New York City where people need it the most. Affordable housing remains the foundation of a safer, more affordable New York City, and the opening of these new homes shows how quickly we can make change when we work together."

"A robust shelter system is necessary for supporting New Yorkers in crisis, but it's no substitute for permanent housing and all the stability and opportunity that comes with a proper home," said DSS Commissioner Wasow Park. "We have been laser-focused on expediting and expanding pathways to housing for New Yorkers in need, and the results speak for themselves: We've moved a record number of households from shelter to permanent housing in back-to-back fiscal years. But with a citywide housing vacancy rate of just 1.4 percent, building on this incredible progress requires innovative approaches to housing, and our Affordable Housing Services initiative represents just that. Through this initiative, DSS has created nearly 400 units of deeply affordable housing for New Yorkers in shelter, including this amazing 63-unit project developed in partnership with The Doe Fund. We have hundreds of additional units in our pipeline and very much look forward to bringing those homes online and providing a brighter future for New Yorkers in need."

The 63-unit building is the latest site to open as part of the Adams administration's push to fast-track the creation of nearly 900 deeply affordable homes, which have already been awarded as part of the AHS pipeline. With nearly 400 units now open, DSS is working to expedite the opening of another 500 deeply affordable homes for New Yorkers in the shelter system with rental assistance program CityFHEPS vouchers. DSS continues to develop the AHS pipeline, working with various not-for-profit providers to identify new, high-quality proposals as the city looks to build on this year's record-breaking progress connecting New Yorkers in shelter to permanent subsidized housing.

The AHS site will be operated by not-for-profit human services provider The Doe Fund, which has four decades of experience helping vulnerable New Yorkers facing compounding challenges and unique barriers to obtaining long-term housing stability. The organization's signature "Ready, Willing, and Able" program has helped countless New Yorkers break the cycle of homelessness, with a specific focus on providing employment supports for justice-involved individuals and New Yorkers struggling with substance use challenges. DSS has finalized or opened AHS sites with various not-for-profit providers, including Riseboro, the Fortune Society, Community Housing Innovation, VIP Community Services, and Services for the Underserved.

There are more than 9,000 households holding CityFHEPS vouchers currently in the city's shelter system that are unable to find housing due to the city's severe housing shortage. AHS created a newer, much needed, and scalable pathway out of shelter. Through the program, the city helps nonprofits purchase or enter long-term, building-wide leases to create deeply affordable housing with 30-year contracts leveraging social services dollars — locking in long-term affordability with strong tenant protections for CityFHEPS voucher holders. Many of the program's remaining apartments are scheduled to become available for lease through February 2025, which will mark the one-year anniversary of this innovative housing program for CityFHEPS voucher holders in shelter.

Today's announcement builds on the Adams administration's historic efforts in combatting the city's housing crisis. Earlier this month, Mayor Adams celebrated the approval of his administration's "City of Yes for Housing Opportunity," the most pro-housing zoning proposal in New York City history, which will enable the creation of 80,000 new homes over the next 15 years and invest $5 billion towards critical infrastructure updates and housing.

In June, the Adams administration's FY25 Adopted Budget invested $2 billion in capital funds to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Housing Authority's capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed a record $26 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan. In July, Mayor Adams announced back-to-back record breaking years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing. This past spring, the city celebrated the largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years with the Willets Point transformation.

Further, the Adams administration is using every tool available to address the city's housing crisis. Mayor Adams announced multiple new tools, including a $4 million state grant, to help New York City homeowners create accessory dwelling units that will not only help them to afford to remain in the communities they call home, but also to build generational wealth for families. Earlier this year, Mayor Adams and members of his administration successfully advocated for new tools in the 2024 New York state budget that will spur the creation of urgently needed housing. These tools include a new tax incentive for multifamily rental construction, a tax incentive program to encourage office conversions to create more affordable units, lifting the arbitrary "floor-to-area ratio" cap that held back affordable housing production in certain high-demand areas of the city, and the ability to create a pilot program to legalize and make safe basement apartments.

Under Mayor Adams' leadership, the city is fulfilling its 2024 State of the City commitment to build more affordable housing, including by being ahead of schedule on advancing two dozen affordable housing projects on city-owned land this year through the "24 in '24" initiative, reopening the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program waitlist after being closed to general applications for nearly 15 years, and creating the Tenant Protection Cabinet to coordinate across agencies to better serve tenants. The city has also taken several steps to cut red tape and speed up the delivery of much-needed housing, including through the "Green Fast Track for Housing," a streamlined environmental review process for qualifying small- and medium-sized housing projects; the "Office Conversion Accelerator," an interagency effort to guide buildings that wish to convert through city bureaucracy; and other initiatives of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Taskforce.

"In a city with a homeless population in the thousands, we must do everything we can to provide safe, stable housing to all New Yorkers," said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. "The new Bronx AHS site is part of our groundbreaking work this year to address homelessness, putting over 18,500 households on the path to dignity and self-sufficiency. This work included almost 400 new deeply affordable homes and a record number of CityFHEPS voucher users. I am building upon this effort by working with the administration to expedite housing production and provide new resources to serve our unhoused population. Through our determination, we will give all New Yorkers the help and support they need."

"In close partnership with the New York City Department of Social Services, The Doe Fund's transformative solutions have connected nearly 14,000 people experiencing homelessness to jobs, housing, or both. That relationship deepens with 2736 Creston Avenue, the latest residence in our over 1,200-unit portfolio of permanent affordable and supportive housing," said Jennifer Mitchell, president and CEO, The Doe Fund. "This innovative development provides a pathway to stability for 63 individuals and families with histories of homelessness. We thank Mayor Eric Adams, Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Park, and the hundreds of dedicated Department of Homeless Services employees who have made this ambitious vision possible."