City and State Officials Join Win to celebrate the opening of over 150 new affordable apartments with supportive services in Brownsville, Brooklyn

Brooklyn, New York — New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer, and New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) join Win President and CEO Christine C. Quinn, and development partners to celebrate the opening of Stone House, the newly-built Brownsville facility provides 96 supportive-housing units and 64 affordable units to dozens of low-income families looking for quality housing and helps formerly homeless families break the cycle of homelessness.

Stone House – named for former Win President and CEO Bonnie Stone – is transformational. The once vacant lot is now a facility that offers an array of on-site services to empower families with the tools for finding stability, safety and greater independence, including case management, job readiness and income building. Families also receive assistance like referrals to programs for medical and mental health needs, education counseling and access to social activities, among others.

“Supportive housing is a proven model for addressing homelessness, pairing high-quality affordable housing with the essential services that residents need to thrive.  Thanks to the leadership of Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the budget approved this week will accelerate funding for supportive housing, making it possible to open more projects like Stone House that provides 161 homes for low-income households, including 96 for chronically homeless families,” said HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer.  “I want to thank our partners at WIN and Junius Glenmore Development for serving our city’s most vulnerable while creating a lasting asset for the community, and congratulate the new residents of Stone House – welcome home!”

“By coupling a safe, stable, and affordable home with supportive services we are providing meaningful, long-term solutions to those struggling with homelessness,” said HDC President Eric Enderlin. “I commend WIN for their ongoing efforts to provide greater stability and hope to some of our City’s most vulnerable households, and thank all our partners for creating a path to a more promising future for the 161 families at Stone House.”

“Stone House will deliver immediate assistance and support to the women and children who continue to be the forgotten face of New York City’s homelessness crisis,” said Christine C. Quinn, President and CEO of Win. “This is a monumental step forward in combatting the city’s homelessness crisis and Win is committed to ensuring these families have the support and resources they need to break the cycle of homelessness permanently. Stone House sets the standard for supportive housing models across the country – brand new units designed to provide stability to families to help them get back on their feet.”

“The only way we will reduce homelessness is by creating more permanent affordable housing,” said NYC Council Member Rafael Espinal. “We must invest in permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless families to make sure they have the resources to get on their feet. Win has consistently provided more than just shelter, but also, a source of hope for so many families in need and I am thankful this model will be first in our district. I commend Win CEO and President, Christine Quinn on her leadership and vision.”

The newly constructed Stone House units support New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal of adding 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years. Many partners made Stone House possible, including the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) Supportive Housing Loan Program, the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the New York State Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP) under the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA), the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), The Richman Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (OER) and FCA Realty, with additional support from the Google Community Foundation, and Riley Home, which is providing blankets to new residents.

Over 60,000 homeless people live in New York City, and children comprise the majority of this population. According to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 2013 evaluation, homeless people given supportive housing saved NYS taxpayers an average of $10,100 per person per year.

 

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 The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the nation’s largest municipal housing preservation and development agency. Its mission is to promote quality housing and diverse, thriving neighborhoods for New Yorkers through loan and development programs for new affordable housing, preservation of the affordability of the existing housing stock, enforcement of housing quality standards, and educational programs for tenants and building owners. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York Plan which was recently expanded and accelerated through Housing New York 2.0 to complete the initial goal of 200,000 homes two years ahead of schedule—by 2022, and achieve an additional 100,000 homes over the following four years, for a total of 300,000 homes by 2026.  For full details visit www.nyc.gov/hpd and for regular updates on HPD news and services, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @NYCHousing.

The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) The New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC) is the nation’s largest municipal Housing Finance Agency and is charged with helping to finance the creation or preservation of affordable housing under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York plan. Since 2003, HDC has financed more than 140,000 housing units using over $20.2 billion in bonds and other debt obligations, and provided in excess of $1.8 billion in subsidy from corporate reserves. HDC ranks among the nation’s top issuers of mortgage revenue bonds for affordable multi-family housing on Thomson Reuter’s annual list of multi-family bond issuers. In each of the last five consecutive years, HDC’s annual bond issuance has surpassed $1.3 billion. For additional information, visit: http://www.nychdc.com