Celebrating Black History Month: Recognizing Those Whose Life Work is Dedicated To Creating Affordable Housing in NYC
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, February 28, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A 30 Year Mission To Alleviate the Homeless Crisis By One New Yorker Shows a Critical Path for Other Developers
Homelessness in New York City has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately affected. The nonprofit Coalition for Homeless reported that about 57 percent of heads of households in shelters are Black, 32 percent are Hispanic/Latinx; 7 percent are white.
Moujan Vahdat, one of the largest landowners in New York, has dedicated his life’s work to alleviating the homeless crisis in the City. He currently owns and manages over a dozen low-income and affordable housing properties throughout New York City, including four homeless shelters. The shelters, located in Manhattan and the Bronx provide accommodations for over 1,000 New Yorkers, including many children. He pays tribute to Black History Month with a commitment to build another 200 units of affordable housing and five additional homeless shelters by 2025.
One of his newest projects is 1870 Pelham Pkwy in the South Bronx, the former location of Our Lady of Mercy Hospital where 60,000 sq ft. was renovated and converted into a total of 77 apartments. The housing project also boasts 5,000 sq. ft. of Community Facility space for services and case management, providing housing for more than 200 people. It is being operated by Alliance for Positive Change as supportive housing.
Also notable is Vahdat’s partnership with The Bridge Inc., an organization he works closely with to provide housing and behavioral health services to those in need through 40 programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan to provide hundreds of subsidized apartments in East and West Harlem.
For Vahdat, who has visited scores of homeless shelters in New York over and spoken with hundreds of homeless New Yorkers living and sleeping in the streets, he is steadfast in his belief that the “mental health dilemma is 100% more prevalent in the people who live in the streets than the shelter population because they cannot navigate the bureaucratic mass of our city government.” For example, he notes, “if this population does not have a personal identification card, they can’t use the shelter system.”
While he applauds the New York City Department of Homeless Services “as a hardworking, and compassionate City agency,” he says, which helps to house 64,000 individuals in its shelters, in the absence of additional emergency rental assistance or expansion of needed rent subsidies, an unprecedented eviction crisis looms for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers following the expiration of the State’s eviction moratorium.
Moujan implores other real estate developers to follow his lead and do their part in helping to alleviate this crisis by thinking long-term when selecting sites, building community support and trust and taking the time to understand financing options as loans, grants, and other programs involve rabbit holes of qualifications and restrictions.
“Developing affordable housing requires in-depth knowledge of these options as well as the ability to weave them together seamlessly to create a development proposal that can work financially,” says Vahdat. “Find talent from within your own company, people who are able to navigate the myriad of funding sources and then put them together to make a deal work. That’s the art and science of affordable housing.”
About Moujan Vahdat
Born in Teheran Iran, Moujan Vahdat immigrated to the United States in 1964 at age 12. His first jobs included mopping floors and washing dishes in Elmhurst, Queens. He also took an interest in learning real estate and at a young age started working his way up the ranks. In the mid 80’s he founded Elmo Realty Co., a full-service real estate firm that specializes in multi-family development, affordable and low-income housing projects across New York City.
His firm has bought and sold over 75 properties and currently owns and manages over a dozen low-income and affordable housing properties throughout New York City, that include that includes 1793 Amsterdam Avenue, 32 West 123rd Street, 375 Pleasant Avenue and 2375 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd as well as four homeless shelters in Manhattan and the Bronx.
About The Bridge Inc.
The Bridge was founded in 1954 by former long-term residents of a psychiatric hospital. Returning to the community and finding that there were no programs to support them, Bridge founders created a self-help collective to offer social support to adults, like themselves, with serious mental illness.
Today, The Bridge has developed into a $65 million agency providing housing and behavioral health services to over 4,000 New Yorkers each year. They run more than 40 programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, each designed to meet the individual needs of the men and women they serve. https://www.thebridgeny.org/
Media Contact
Kristina Bredikhina
E: Kristina@hundredstoriespr.com
P: 510-332-1927
Dropbox Link to Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/2a9v1oizb9t2wq3a2gpgd/h?dl=0&rlkey=ds8v5kzg53occ4x661zqhf21v
Homelessness in New York City has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately affected. The nonprofit Coalition for Homeless reported that about 57 percent of heads of households in shelters are Black, 32 percent are Hispanic/Latinx; 7 percent are white.
Moujan Vahdat, one of the largest landowners in New York, has dedicated his life’s work to alleviating the homeless crisis in the City. He currently owns and manages over a dozen low-income and affordable housing properties throughout New York City, including four homeless shelters. The shelters, located in Manhattan and the Bronx provide accommodations for over 1,000 New Yorkers, including many children. He pays tribute to Black History Month with a commitment to build another 200 units of affordable housing and five additional homeless shelters by 2025.
One of his newest projects is 1870 Pelham Pkwy in the South Bronx, the former location of Our Lady of Mercy Hospital where 60,000 sq ft. was renovated and converted into a total of 77 apartments. The housing project also boasts 5,000 sq. ft. of Community Facility space for services and case management, providing housing for more than 200 people. It is being operated by Alliance for Positive Change as supportive housing.
Also notable is Vahdat’s partnership with The Bridge Inc., an organization he works closely with to provide housing and behavioral health services to those in need through 40 programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan to provide hundreds of subsidized apartments in East and West Harlem.
For Vahdat, who has visited scores of homeless shelters in New York over and spoken with hundreds of homeless New Yorkers living and sleeping in the streets, he is steadfast in his belief that the “mental health dilemma is 100% more prevalent in the people who live in the streets than the shelter population because they cannot navigate the bureaucratic mass of our city government.” For example, he notes, “if this population does not have a personal identification card, they can’t use the shelter system.”
While he applauds the New York City Department of Homeless Services “as a hardworking, and compassionate City agency,” he says, which helps to house 64,000 individuals in its shelters, in the absence of additional emergency rental assistance or expansion of needed rent subsidies, an unprecedented eviction crisis looms for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers following the expiration of the State’s eviction moratorium.
Moujan implores other real estate developers to follow his lead and do their part in helping to alleviate this crisis by thinking long-term when selecting sites, building community support and trust and taking the time to understand financing options as loans, grants, and other programs involve rabbit holes of qualifications and restrictions.
“Developing affordable housing requires in-depth knowledge of these options as well as the ability to weave them together seamlessly to create a development proposal that can work financially,” says Vahdat. “Find talent from within your own company, people who are able to navigate the myriad of funding sources and then put them together to make a deal work. That’s the art and science of affordable housing.”
About Moujan Vahdat
Born in Teheran Iran, Moujan Vahdat immigrated to the United States in 1964 at age 12. His first jobs included mopping floors and washing dishes in Elmhurst, Queens. He also took an interest in learning real estate and at a young age started working his way up the ranks. In the mid 80’s he founded Elmo Realty Co., a full-service real estate firm that specializes in multi-family development, affordable and low-income housing projects across New York City.
His firm has bought and sold over 75 properties and currently owns and manages over a dozen low-income and affordable housing properties throughout New York City, that include that includes 1793 Amsterdam Avenue, 32 West 123rd Street, 375 Pleasant Avenue and 2375 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd as well as four homeless shelters in Manhattan and the Bronx.
About The Bridge Inc.
The Bridge was founded in 1954 by former long-term residents of a psychiatric hospital. Returning to the community and finding that there were no programs to support them, Bridge founders created a self-help collective to offer social support to adults, like themselves, with serious mental illness.
Today, The Bridge has developed into a $65 million agency providing housing and behavioral health services to over 4,000 New Yorkers each year. They run more than 40 programs in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, each designed to meet the individual needs of the men and women they serve. https://www.thebridgeny.org/
Media Contact
Kristina Bredikhina
E: Kristina@hundredstoriespr.com
P: 510-332-1927
Dropbox Link to Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/2a9v1oizb9t2wq3a2gpgd/h?dl=0&rlkey=ds8v5kzg53occ4x661zqhf21v
Kristina Bredikhina
Hundred Stories PR
+1 510-332-1927
email us here
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