NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) recently announced Just Home, a forthcoming housing project for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with life-threatening medical conditions. Located at 1900 Seminole Avenue in the Morris Park section of The Bronx, the initiative will create approximately 70 studio and two-bedroom apartments.
The existing property at 1900 Seminole Avenue currently sits vacant on the NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi Medical Center campus. Tenants will have access to intensive on-site social services provided by licensed clinical social workers, peer workers, and specialists, as well as health services at Jacobi Hospital. The Fortune Society, a non-profit organization focused on individuals impacted by the criminal justice system, will act as the developer, manager, and social service provider for the project.
“New York City has a dire need for supportive housing for our most vulnerable citizens, and few are more vulnerable than those exiting the justice system with serious health conditions,” said HPD commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. “Fortune Society has a long, proven record of helping justice-involved New Yorkers reintegrate with their communities, while NYC Health + Hospitals has the expertise to ensure residents receive the level of care and attention we all deserve.”
Just Home will be modeled after The Fortune Society’s Castle Gardens, an 11-story mixed-use property at 625 West 140th Street in West Harlem. Opened in 2011, the 114 apartments at Castle Gardens were also envisioned as transitional supportive housing for formerly incarcerated adults. Today, the property provides features 63 supportive apartments for formerly incarcerated and formerly homeless individuals, 50 units of affordable housing for members of the community, and one apartment for a live-in superintendent.
Street level photograph of the completed Castle Gardens at 625 West 140th Street in West Harlem – Curtis + Ginsberg Architects
Photograph of the completed Castle Gardens at 625 West 140th Street in West Harlem – Curtis + Ginsberg Architects
The Just Home project will ultimately require a ground lease between NYC Health + Hospitals and Fortune. Following a public hearing, the ground lease will need to be approved by the NYC Health + Hospitals board of directors and the New York City Council. Stakeholders are currently contending with fierce backlash from local residents who fear how an influx in formerly incarcerated residents will impact the safety of the Morris Park neighborhood.
“Housing is foundational to a person’s well-being, especially for people in the process of reentry from prison or jail,” said Stanley Richards, deputy CEO, The Fortune Society. “We know from our decades of safely housing people with conviction histories that they can be good neighbors. The neighborhoods that are home to our developments can attest to that.”
The Fortune Society does not expect to open the property until 2025 at the very earliest.
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Add some razorwire and it would look right at home on Rikers.
I used to work across the street from this building that was known as the “Staff House.” This was originally used by residents and interns from Jacobi and Van Etten hospitals on the campus. The exteriors of this and the 1955 hospitals were glazed white brick that had the usual spalling problem. With the construction of a new building for patients the massive old Jacobi was underutilized. Van Etten Hospital, originally for TB faced a similar situation when antibiotics rendered such places obsolete. There was also the 1962 Nurses’ Residence building that was intended as a nursing school with dorm rooms, lounges, auditorium, and even a basement swimming pool. This closed early on and left even more vacant space.
Those are photos of the existing Castle Gardens building in Manhattan. They’re not renderings and they’re not related to this project.
New building should look similar.