New Bronx Affordable Housing

The second affordable housing unit of the Bedford Green House development had an opening ceremony on Wednesday. Nonprofit organization Project Renewal developed the project with funding from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

The Bedford Green House is a development consisting of two buildings, the first which opened in 2021 and the second in April of this year.  The units provide housing for low-income, elderly, and formerly homeless people and families. 

FUV's Xenia Gonikberg interviewed the President and CEO of Project Renewal, Eric Rosenbaum who described the nonprofit as helping people who have significant challenges — such as chronic homelessness, mental illness, substance-use disorders, or histories of incarceration — renew their lives. Rosenbaum calls Bedford Green House a vision of what affordable housing should be.

“It’s not just the apartment," he said. "It’s the sense of community that we actively work to create."

Residents pay 30% of their income to live at the development, compared to the 50% or more that many low-income New Yorkers spend on housing. 

Michael Washburn, comptroller of New York’s Homeless Housing Assistance Program, said HHA provided $6 million for the 116-unit building, which includes 70 units of permanent supportive housing.  

"This project will offer a path to stability, resources for growth, and a chance to rebuild lives,” said Washburn.

Council Member Pierina Sanchez, who represents Bronx’s 14th District where the development is located, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also spoke at the ceremony. 

Sanchez said this project is "so important in this moment" and will support people in her community, especially as the city faces federal funding cuts. She believes that it's imperative that New York City's government agencies come together, both city and state.

"Organizing these incredibly complex deals and processes and projects, it shows that we can put our best and our brightest forward to protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” she said. 

Janice Coles has lived at Bedford Green House since July and calls the building a blessing. "If I could tell anyone about this building, I would say it's a paradise,” she said.  

Building amenities include a children’s library, learning center, and on-site therapy services. A separate health clinic available to both residents and the public is expected to open in the summer of 2026.

- by Xenia Gonikberg

This story ran on the What's What Podcast on October 8, 2025.