AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation offers ‘fresh start’

Joshua Eloquin watched as more than 50 units filled up after a former hotel was converted into affordable housing in New York City’s Harlem a little more than a year ago, and started to notice a commonality for most.

“I will call it a fresh start. A new beginning, a new journey. That’s what healthy housing means,” said Eloquin, property manager at the Harlem Place One residence on W. 145th Street in Harlem’s Sugar Hill section, in an interview with O’Donnell & Associates.

The 55-unit residence is the first to open under the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF) program in New York City. The program is AHF’s response to the nation’s affordable housing crisis and is not to be confused with supportive housing. Instead, it is part of AHF’s commitment to the communities it serves across the country, answering the call for more housing that’s affordable to residents who meet certain income requirements.

“Living in this type of housing has been the best opportunity for me because it’s hard, literally, to find out who is willing to help you while you’re in the thick of going through some stuff,” said Harlem Place One resident Naajia Villa. “So, I got the information, I applied, and they got back to me within a week. It was a blessing.”

Don’t call it an “SRO”

“This all started in LA (almost 10 years ago), where you may have heard about all of the tent cities and people living on the streets there, and the rents being so high. So, AHF decided to get into the business of providing affordable housing through adaptive reuse,” Marlene LaLota, AHF senior regional director, told O’Donnell & Associates in an interview earlier this month.

The hotel conversions are similar in concept to single room occupancy housing, more commonly referred to as SROs, which provide single units, mostly with shared bathrooms and kitchens. However, SRO is a term which has carried a stigma, and it’s one the AHF has tried to get away from. The adaptive reuse of former hotels, as LaLota mentioned, is AHF’s approach to creating affordable housing.

“Basically, the (idea) was to buy these old hotels that maybe went out of business, or for whatever reason were on the market, and then adapt them to be more in line with our models,” LaLota said.

Rasheed Gonga, AHF associate director of advocacy and community engagement, pitched adaptive reuse as an effective way of repurposing unused buildings throughout the five boroughs. However, there are challenges.

We need to build housing and be able to build housing quickly and affordably to allow people to get into their homes. But there are also jurisdictions like here in New York City where buildings are sitting vacant for decades that aren’t being used, right? That’s where our adaptive reuse models come in. This building is sitting vacant, and there are people on the streets. There’s no reason why we can’t adapt these buildings to be homes for individuals.

Rasheed Gonga, AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Gonga pointed out how it’s less expensive to convert a former hotel, as opposed to razing it and building a new structure. He also said that “on the Albany level, the red tape needs to be cut.” He recalled efforts by the state to put housing on the campus of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, which have dragged on for years. Requests for proposals go back to 2022 but were superseded by a new plan last year, which is only now in the review phase. Gonga echoed the frustration housing advocates have had with the state’s slow response.

“Fortunately for us, we have the ability to do this on our own. But most housing organizations don’t have that ability,” he said. Gonga added the AHF would still welcome financial support from the state, as it looks to expand its Healthy Housing program in New York City. He suggested creating a state fund, solely for adaptive reuse.

For now, AHF is carefully reviewing how well Harlem Place One is living up to its mission after more than a full year of operation and as it prepares to open Harlem Place Two nearby, which is expected to have 56 units.

Adaptive reuse defies stereotypes

The HHF model is far from the stereotype of SROs, which carry the stigma of being associated with poverty and for being cramped, crime-ridden, and substandard. New York City once had more than 100,000 SROs, but they have been on the decline since the 1950s because of the negatives they were associated with.

However, with an affordability crisis that’s driving people out of New York and with the city’s vacancy rate at a historic low of 1.4%, interest in creating new SROs has returned.

Former New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher, who won a special election in February to replace Brad Hoylman-Sigal in the state Senate after Hoylman-Sigal won election to be Manhattan Borough President late last year, introduced a bill that would allow the construction of new SROs as small as 100 square feet.

The New York Times reported that the legislation was the first of its kind in decades and was backed by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. HPD’s blessing would make the process of converting office buildings into housing easier. The bill, also sponsored by Council Member Lincoln Restler, has been idle since Bottcher’s departure.

The residents at Harlem Place One have struggled with housing insecurity before moving in. The residence is open to anyone in need of housing and has attracted a wide spectrum of New Yorkers, including people performing essential roles, like hospital workers, educators, and emergency responders. Few fit the stereotype that has come to characterize the residents of SROs previously. Instead, the residents of Harlem Place One reflect how difficult it has become for young, working-class New Yorkers to afford rent in New York City.

“So grateful” for housing

Villa moved into Harlem Place One in March after a breakup left her moving between relatives’ homes, friends’ couches, a hotel, and other temporary housing situations. Her mother, who works in a shelter program in New Jersey, passed the information about Harlem Place One to Villa. After her application was accepted, she moved into a unit that included a TV, refrigerator, and microwave. The unit also featured a sink. The bathroom was shared with other residents.

I think my only issue is that the walls are paper-thin, so, like, I can hear my music from down the hall when I’m in the bathroom. But it’s okay. I’m just so grateful. Especially because I’ve always wanted something for myself, even if I don’t care if it’s just a room. I’ve always wanted something for myself.

Naajia Villa, Harlem Place One resident

Villa, a 24-year-old college graduate, said that “interestingly” she works for a housing organization, a job she got through the city’s Summer Youth program, and that her rent at Harlem Place One was $800. She said it was affordable enough for her to cover her other expenses, including a storage unit for many of her belongings. However, when she was interviewed by O’Donnell & Associates in late August, she was offered the chance to move into another unit for $850 that included a private bathroom. While it was smaller, Villa was willing to take it.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, this bathroom looks nice. Sign me up!’”

Thirty-one-year-old Tiffany Jade Munroe, who works as the trans justice manager for an LGBTQ+ Caribbean immigrant-rights organization known as the Caribbean Equality Project, discovered Harlem Place One through her job’s work with AHF. At the time, she was experiencing housing instability after a falling out with relatives and a breakup with her boyfriend in Woodside, Queens.

Her credit history made it difficult to get her own apartment, forcing Munroe to rely on the city’s shelter system, where she spent several nights while working and saving up enough money to make the move to Harlem Place One at the end of this past spring.

“It’s been nothing but greatness,” she said of her experience at the residence since moving in. Munroe said there were no crowded conditions and praised how the former hotel’s renovated units provided every tenant with their own space. “I really appreciate that. I need my privacy,” she told O’Donnell & Associates in late August. At the time of the interview, Munroe said she had learned that she had won a lottery for an apartment in Willets Point, Queens.

Munroe said she alerted the management at Harlem Place One and thanked them for her time living there. “I’m pretty excited!” she said about her move, but again she shifted to expressions of gratitude for the stability she found while living at Harlem Place One, and for “letting me figure out what’s next for me.”

A home “for now”

Raphael Pagan, a 24-year-old educator who teaches public school Earth and Space Science and AP Computer Science Principles to high school students, admitted that few people at school knew he was living out of hotels and an Airbnb after his marriage ended.

Pagan did not want to bring “anything from the outside into the classroom or the school,” he said in an interview with O’Donnell & Associates. “No one really knew what I was going through at the time and that I had been ... in those living situations.”

“Eventually, over the course of the year, I was able to develop deeper relationships where I felt comfortable enough to share about that,” he added.

During the time that followed, he ended up living in Jersey City and later Brooklyn and relied on help from his parents financially. His father helped him look for a longer-term place. That’s when they discovered Harlem Place One, where Pagan moved in around January. He pays $850 a month and has his own bathroom. He says the room is small but workable.

“It’s home for now,” he said, noting that after he paid his rent, having money left over was still “difficult.” He said he hopes to move within a couple of months so he can “figure out” a better financial situation for himself.

Harlem Place One had given him a home and some friendly faces to look forward to, Pagan told O’Donnell & Associates. “I’ve enjoyed living here,” he said. “The people at the front desk can be pretty nice, as well as the property manager.”