"Tara Gilbert spent months looking for an apartment with her city-funded housing voucher while living in a Staten Island women's shelter since January. She had leads on several apartments throughout the year, only to have them disappear and get rented to someone else. "It was very frustrating. I was starting to get angry to the point where I was like, damn, am I going to be in shelter for the rest of my life. What is this?" asked Gilbert."
"All 183 units in her building will house voucher holders moving in from one of the city's shelters. The project is the result of a "happy accident," said Rebecca Crimmins, senior vice president for real estate and development at the Institute for Community Living (ICL), which now co-owns the building with Camber Property Group. In 2024, the Jay Group listed one-bedroom apartments in the building for $2,500 to $3,000 a month."
"The nonprofit and the city struck a deal to fill the building with voucher holders enrolled in the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) program, which provides rental aid to New Yorkers in shelter or at risk of homelessness. Expected revenue from the voucher payments will finance ICL's mortgage on the building. City officials are confident the project is replicable."
Tara Gilbert spent months searching for an apartment using a city-funded housing voucher while living in a Staten Island women's shelter. Leads repeatedly fell through as apartments were rented to others, prolonging shelter stays. In October Gilbert moved into a new 183-unit luxury building on Atlantic Avenue in East New York where all units will house voucher holders from city shelters. A nonprofit co-owns the building with a private group after buying it from developers who faced weak market demand. The city and nonprofit arranged to fill the building with CityFHEPS voucher recipients, with voucher payments expected to finance the nonprofit's mortgage. The Department of Social Services launched an Affordable Housing Services program to expand options for voucher holders.
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