Developers unveiled plans this week for a 10-story building housing LGBTQ youth and a 15-story building for formerly incarcerated people.
Story Nick Garber, Patch Staff
Nov 19, 2020 4:36 pm ET|Updated Nov 19, 2020 6:42 pm ET
Two new supportive housing developments are coming to East Harlem. Supportive housing is more than just an apartment or room, it’s a building that also typically has a manager, social workers, and security. One of the new developments will house LGBTQ youth, and the other will house the formerly incarcerated.
In November, Community Board 11 ‘s Land Use committee heard about the proposed building on East 106th Street at Second Avenue that would serve homeless LGBTQ youth. The second project on 123rd Street and Park Avenue will be reserved mostly for formerly incarcerated people.
Both projects will need to be approved by the City Council via ULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Process). During this phase, elected officials, residents of CB11, and the community board will get to provide feedback before the City Council has the final say.
The LGBTQ youth project will be located at 244 East 106th Street – currentlya vacant lot. Ascendant, a Harlem affordable housing developer, is seeking to construct a 10-story, 36-unit building.
It will be run by the nonprofit Ali Fourney Center, the nation’s largest organization devoted to LGBTQ homeless youths. The building would include 5 total apartments, each containing between four and eight private bedrooms.
Members of CB11’s land use committee reacted warmly to the project, which would break ground by 2023 at earliest and does not require any changes to the zoning code.
“I love that East Harlem is the type of place where people feel welcome and would want to live and be supported by members of the community,” member Jessica Morris said.
“Castle III” – 107-111 East 123rd Street – will be a 15-story, 82-unit building operated by The Fortune Society, a nonprofit that helps people reenter society after being incarcerated.
Sixty percent of the building’s 82 units would be reserved for homeless, formerly incarcerated people, with another 10 percent reserved for formerly homeless people.
One hundred percent of the apartments will be affordable, open to New Yorkers earning between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income — qualifying as “extremely” and “very” low-income.
For Castle III to be built, the city would need to grant a special zoning permit for the site, on East 123rd between Park and Lexington avenues, to allow for increased density. Developers hope to start construction by 2022 and wrap up in 2024.
To read more about The Fortune Society, and “Castle 1” – located on Riverside Drive in West Harlem – see this fantastic New Yorker article:
