▶ Watch Video: Affordable housing gets a big boost in Brownsville, Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Quality low-income and affordable housing has been a challenge in the Big Apple for decades.
But as CBS2’s Natalie Duddridge reported Monday, there’s a gem of a building in Brooklyn that has the design, community, and backing that’s making it work.
“Good design can be done at every dollar level. For those who live here, this is luxury,” said Grant Marani, a partner at Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
Marani and Andrew McIntyre are the architects behind ultra luxurious and high-priced projects like some on Park Place and Central Park West.
But the latest project for the partners and senior design associates at Robert A.M. Stern is a 125-unit apartment building in Brownsville for low-income and formerly unhoused residents.
It is the first of this type they have done in the city.
“They develop the most beautiful buildings in the world. And yet they sit down and think about the needs of our tenants — how to bring special design elements to these small spaces,” said Brenda Rosen, president and CEO of Breaking Ground.
Rosen leads the nonprofit that runs the Livonia Avenue building, and 4,000 other supportive housing apartments around the city. She says there were more than 47,000 applications for these units.
“We had the ability to build a community in the building, and build a program that meets all of their needs,” Rosen said.
There are amenities like laundry, bicycle storage, a computer room, an outside courtyard, along with social services in the $75 million project. Apartments come with basic furnishings and there are even plant giveaways. But there’s something more in the building, too.
“The view is so amazing. It has done so much for me,” resident Lelani Deruso said.
Deruso, a veteran who moved in just four months ago, said she’s so thankful for her new space.
“This is beautiful, beautiful, so much more than what I expected. And, you know, I was really searching so hard to try to find a place of my own because I needed to be alone,” Deruso said.
And there’s something else for all tenants who live there.
When anyone moves in, they’re each gifted an original piece of artwork.
“I chose the Brooklyn Bridge because I said this was a new beginning for us,” Shaunique Flowers said.
Flowers had never been to Brooklyn before. She moved in with her two kids several months ago.
“We were in a shelter in the Bronx. You know, small, little, like basically a room that we all were sharing. So now that they’re having their own room, having their own … having their toys, being able to be out,” Flowers said.
She said her kids love seeing their building from the train. But more that that, she said her family has found community, and finally a sense of home.
“Having your children being happy and safe is one of the things that we all want. That’s something that we strive for,” Flowers said.
“I’m incredibly proud to be involved with a project that brings such a benefit to the community and that it looks like it has always been here and belongs in this neighborhood,” McIntyre said.
The architects from Robert A.M. Stern say they were incredibly gratified by how the building has been received and would absolutely do a project like this again. Funding for the project comes from a variety of city and state agencies, as well as other partnerships.
