Park Slope

Brooklyn’s Fifth Ave. Committee developing senior housing in Queens

October 12, 2018 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Once construction is complete, the Northeastern Towers Annex will contain 159 residential units for senior citizens. Image courtesy of Fifth Avenue Committee Inc.
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Teamwork between Brooklyn and Queens is bearing fruit for senior citizens. 

A ceremony marking the groundbreaking for new senior citizen housing in Jamaica, Queens was scheduled to take place on Oct. 12 with representatives of the sponsors, the Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc. and the Northeastern Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in attendance to mark the start of construction. 

The new 10-story building will contain 159 apartments for low-income senior citizens ages 62 and older.

The Northeastern Towers Annex will be located adjacent to an existing apartment building for senior citizens on Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, Queens, according to the Fifth Avenue Committee, a Park Slope-based, non-profit organization that works to create affordable housing around the city.

The multi-million-dollar project is financed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Extremely Low and Low-Income Program and the Senior Affordable Rental Apartments Program, an initiative of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. 

The building’s residential units will include 58 studios, 100 one-bedroom apartments, and a two-bedroom superintendent’s apartment. A handful of the apartments will be reserved for senior citizens with mobility, visual and hearing issues. Apartments will be set aside for tenants who were formerly homeless

In addition to providing housing, the Northeastern Towers Annex will also include a space for the Hellenic American Neighborhood Action Committee to provide on-site social services to senior citizens. 

The new building will mark “a major step in addressing the urgent need for affordable housing in Jamaica,” Councilmember Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) said in a statement. 

“Northeastern Towers Annex is an exciting development that will meet many goals as we address the affordable housing crisis and residential needs of older New Yorkers. I look forward to this exciting example of progress in our borough and creating affordable units for vulnerable populations of various incomes,” Adams added.

Meanwhile, another project the Fifth Avenue Committee is developing is moving forward: the reconstruction of the Sunset Park Library at 5108 Fourth Ave. 

The ambitious project calls for a complete renovation of the library, along with the construction a six-story building above the library that will contain 49 apartments.

“Fifth Avenue Committee is grateful for the overwhelming support this project has received and that FAC and our partners will be able to move forward to bring a 21st century public library and 100 percent truly and deeply affordable housing to the Sunset Park community,” FAC Executive Director Michelle de la Uz said in a statement last year. 

The library renovation project was developed by the Fifth Avenue Committee in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Fifty percent of the apartments will be reserved for residents of Community Board Seven, which represents Sunset Park, according to the Fifth Avenue Committee. Apartments will also be set aside for city employees, the physically disabled and survivors of domestic violence. 

The Sunset Park Library was originally constructed in 1972. The new library will be owned by New York City.

 

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