By HFT Staff

As part of the system’s Housing for Health initiative, NYC Health + Hospitals, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Comunilife broke ground on the Comunilife Throop Residence, a new, $41.5 million 93-unit apartment building. Patients of NYC Health + Hospitals who are experiencing homelessness will be selected for the building’s 56 units of supportive housing, and they will receive services from Comunilife and health care from Woodhull Hospital. The remaining apartments comprise 21 affordable homes for extremely low-income seniors, 15 affordable homes for low-income New Yorkers and one super’s unit. 

Expected to open in late 2024, this is the second phase of affordable and supportive housing development on NYC Health + Hospitals Woodhull campus. The first phase, the Woodhull Residence, was also built on NYC Health + Hospitals land, financed by HPD, and developed by Comunilife. It opened in 2019 and has 89 units of affordable and supportive housing. This project is one of several that will contribute to Housing for Health’s commitment to create nearly 650 new affordable homes in the next five years; upcoming projects include Just Home in the Bronx and 1727 Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. Last year, NYC Health + Hospitals provided care for 49,800 patients experiencing homelessness.  

Supportive housing residents at Comunilife Throop will receive supportive services through awards from the NYC 15/15 program. Comunilife is the project’s developer and service provider. Comunilife serves 3,000 low-income and vulnerable New Yorkers annually with supportive services and affordable housing. 

Amenities at Comunilife Throop will include 24-hour security, laundry, a community room, a computer room, and a bike room. The new building will connect to the previous building on the first floor and share a commercial kitchen, community space, and a back garden. The new development meets design and sustainability standards set by Enterprise Green Communities, the green housing standard for affordable housing, including a smoke-free building, energy efficient appliances, solar panels on the roof and landscaping that uses native or adapted species with efficient irrigation. 

NYC Health + Hospitals contributed the land to the project through a 99-year ground lease. Financed through HPD’s Supportive Housing Loan Program, the project includes $14.6 million in City subsidy, $500,000 in Reso A funds from the Brooklyn Borough President, $15.5 million in NYC Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and $7.5 million loan from Webster Bank. The project also receives funding for rent and supportive services through the NYC 15/15 program, which Mayor Adams committed to accelerating in the Housing Our Neighbors Blueprint to create 15,000 supportive homes by 2028.