By DAVID CRUZ

Residents can expect another supportive/affordable housing hybrid in the neighborhood, adding to a cluster of new specialized housing sites in Norwood/Bedford Park and fueling an ongoing tug of war between residents and non-profit housing groups over the community’s vision.

Project Renewal, a not-for-profit housing provider with another site in Bedford Park, is slated to construct a 12- and 14-story building complex at 2880 Jerome Ave. Currently occupied by two single-family homes, the property is in a persistently troubled portion of Bedford Park, with few amenities save for some 24-hour bodegas and a C-Town supermarket. Developers are expected to appear before Community Board 7’s Land Use/Housing Committee in September to provide a thorough outline of the project. Supportive houses usher in a certain type of population who require assistance that range from on-site therapists to social workers.

“We will ask tough questions,” said Jean Hill, CB7’s committee chair for Land Use/Housing, “We’re not hostile, but we will ask tough questions.” “If we over saturate this area with supportive housing, will other developers come and want to build here?” The Land Use/Housing Committee evaluates any housing proposal, later issuing a confidence or no confidence vote. But their vote is relegated to being purely advisory, given the “as of right” status designated to these projects.

Debate has since arisen over whether Norwood/Bedford Park has become a “dumping ground” for supportive/affordable housing, creating a type of new imbalance. The trend has left many to theorize whether these types of housing sites could lower the prospect of enhanced commercial development given the low-income demographics this housing usually attracts. Many also worry Norwood/Bedford Park’s gradual population boom could drain the neighborhood’s infrastructure, particularly police, fire and medical services.

Details of the Plan
A copy of Project Renewal’s PowerPoint presentation, obtained by the Norwood News in advance of the CB7 meeting, shows the nonprofit’s supportive clientele to be categorized as troubled homeless people whose borough origin is unclear.

Overall, a total of 213 units will be built with supportive and affordable units intermingled into each property, according to the presentation. Building One will house 132 units, 71 of which are supportive with 61 affordable while Building Two will hold 81 units–49 supportive and 32 affordable.

On the affordable housing side, developers are looking for renters who make from $18,150 for individual tenants to a maximum $51,780 in combined income for a family of four. Those numbers align with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Housing New York initiative, where a key tenet aims to put a roof over the heads of those in extreme poverty. This further limits any housing for the middle class, according to Hill.

“They don’t build housing for middle class people anymore. It’s like a trickle-down effect,” said Hill, “and they’re going to trickle down out of New York State.”

Inside amenities will include a community room and garden with eco-friendly features that range from a green roof to solar panels. A storefront will be reserved for a federally qualified health center that’s open to its residents and surrounding community. But the site will not include parking, which could be problematic for CB7. In June, the Land Use/Housing Committee opposed a proposal under the Housing New York plan that would lift a parking requirement for affordable housing.

Continuing Trend
The latest addition of supportive housing represents the continuing trend of new, specialized sites for Norwood and Bedford Park, working class neighborhoods with a median household income of $36,048, according to U.S. Census figures. For the past 24 months, CB7 has heard a number of presentations on proposed supportive sites in the neighborhood, either built on empty lots or abandoned properties.

Indeed, in the past two years, at least eight new supportive housing sites, some with an affordable housing component, will be built, or are currently under construction within CB7’s borders.

Early this year, the Doe Fund, a not-for-profit shelter provider, announced it would build an eight-story, 82-unit supportive/affordable housing building designated for HIV/AIDS sufferers on an empty lot at Webster Avenue and East 204th Street. North of the Doe Fund site, Concern for Independent Living is constructing a 115-unit supportive/affordable housing site for mentally ill patients at Webster Avenue and East Gun Hill Road. Choosing Norwood or Bedford Park for a project could be driven largely by cheaper property values relative to the rest of the city, proximity to schools and public transportation. A spokesperson for Project Renewal confirmed the neighborhood’s amenities drove them to build there. It’s already done so at another supportive/affordable site it opened on 204th Street and Villa Avenue in Bedford Park. The spokesperson also projected the Jerome Avenue site will generate $112 million during the first five years of opening.

Taken together, 484 new units of specialized housing will be built by 2017 within CB7’s borders, adding to the 1,265 current supportive housing units, a 27 percent increase.

Project Renewal has offered services ranging from affordable housing sites to homeless shelters. It’s not new to the neighborhood, having recently built an eight-story supportive housing site on Villa Avenue for formerly mentally ill homeless men. In April, lawmakers called for the closing of Project Renewal’s homeless shelter site in Wakefield after its executive director, Ana Charle, was killed near the site by a former shelter resident with a history of mental illness.

The Department of Homeless Services, which provided millions of dollars to Project Renewal for the Bronx Boulevard site, would increase security in response to Charle’s death. The new site is expected to include round-the-clock security.

“If something like that happens, then you know the neighborhood’s up in arms,” said Hill. “It should never come to that.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.