A new affordable and permanent supportive housing development is coming to the Kingsborough Houses campus in Crown Heights, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced last week.
The project from CAMBA Housing Ventures, named Weeksvillage, will be located on underutilized property owned by the New York City Housing Authority on Kingsborough Extension. Plans call for the construction of a 13-story building featuring 200 affordable homes, including 60 which would be reserved for formerly homeless households and 35 for existing NYCHA residents in the Crown Heights area of Brookyln.
“In the midst of a severe housing shortage, our administration understands we need to be creative to provide the housing New Yorkers desperately need — especially housing affordable for our lowest-income neighbors. The Weeksvillage project brings together underutilized NYCHA land with city financing to deliver exactly that housing need,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a news release. “At the same time, we are building so much more than housing. These homes will support not only residents’ financial health, but also their public and mental health as well as environmental health — creating the kind of high-quality living environment all New Yorkers deserve.”
Weeksvillage will include a mix of studio and one-bedroom dwellings, all of which will make use of Section 8 project-based vouchers. Rents will be set at levels considered affordable for households earning up to 50 percent of the area median income level, with a portion of the apartments reserved for formerly homeless residents.
In addition to housing, the project will include community amenities including:
- a clinic providing health screenings, medication management, and memory care services
- a senior and community teaching kitchen with classes;
- a food pantry; and
- a workforce development and small business center.
The project is being designed to achieve Passive House, Enterprise Green Communities 2020, WELL, and Fitwel certifications, and would include a ground-floor lounge and game area, a multi-purpose room for larger community events, and an outdoor plaza. Plans also call for a community rooms and a fitness center on the second floor, connecting to an outdoor terrace with an exercise space. Other amenities would include a library, a computer room, and a roof deck.
The building design is described as being "contextual and respectful" of the overall Kingsborough campus, based on height, geometry, and the red brick exterior.
- Crown Heights (Urbanize NYC)