A collaborative effort involving Community Access, Spatial Equity, Duvernay + Brooks, and the Cooper Square Committee is reportedly launching this project to provide homes for seniors and formerly homeless individuals, including those with special needs who qualify for supportive services.
As 6sqft reported:
Under the terms of the deal, the developers would create 570 affordable housing units across the full-block site. The project calls for two towers, one measuring 240,000 square feet and the other 570,000 square feet. Up to 60% of the homes will be reserved for homeless New Yorkers.
And...
The first phase of construction will be as-of-right and kick off in 2026; the team may pursue a rezoning for the second phase. Any change in zoning would require the project to go through the uniform land use review procedure (ULURP).
The now-deconsecrated church, founded in 1949, merged with St. Brigid on Avenue B in early 2013. The site adjacent to the Con Ed power plant includes a former school building, greenhouse, and large parking lot.
In March 2022, a local church official who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that the former church and school would be torn down. The source also told EVG's Stacie Joy that the Archdiocese wanted to "do something positive for the community, perhaps something like affordable housing."
The Archdiocese previously went the luxury route, selling two former East Village churches for over $80 million in recent years.
The link below has more background on this story...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Homeless and affordable housing is sorely needed, but I hope it works out concentrating it all on one block.
ReplyDeleteI hope the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation remediates the soil before breaking ground.
ReplyDeleteOne of the announcements I saw referred to a supportive-housing component. I hope the city isn't just going to dump 300 supportive units here--see what's been happening over at the former JW building in Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteBetcha they would’ve gone the luxury route on this one too, if not for the location.
ReplyDeleteIt is a pretty dead end location. The Con Ed plant certainly doesn't add anything desirable to it.
DeleteHey Sarah - we need all the supportive housing we can get. In case you haven't noticed we have alot of homeless people in the hood struggling with substance use and mental health issues. Community Access is a reputable provider of services and operate a bunch of housing in our neighborhood already. BTW the choice of words referring to adding supportive housing to the neighborhood as dumping is offensive. I applaud this development.
ReplyDeleteDoes homeless mean people who are in shelters?
ReplyDeleteWhat about families that are doubled up,tripled up - homeless for all practical purposes?
There are situations where 2 or 3 families - even unrelated - are sharing tiny apartments.
What about EV residents who lost their housing due to dangerous conditions, vacate order?
People who lived at 642 E. 14th .
We need supportive housing, but when you put a large number of such units in an area that's already got a lot of challenges (if that's what they're planning, which I hope they are not), you're asking for trouble. This is a neighborhood already saturated with addicts and the mentally ill unable to manage staying housed on their own, as well as with those who prey on such people. I'm not saying no supportive housing component is appropriate here, but plopping down a large group of such people next to the PJs is likely to produce a shitshow like the JW building.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you can't grasp the implications of using "dumping" in this context--they aren't putting many, if any, such units in Gramercy Park! They're putting them on polluted land across from a power plant, three avenues from the nearest subway and more than a mile from the nearest hospital (once Beth Israel closes). It's a cheap way to work off the guilty conscience.
....a long unused piece of property is finally going to be used for a good purpose. The often greedy Catholic Church makes the rare right & just move - and yet a few naysayers crawl out of their hole to complain.
ReplyDeleteI welcome our new nighbors - I live two blocks away. At least a few East Village blocks will serve the truly needy, not the truly greedy,