Dept. of Social Services and Inst. of Community Living celebrate opening of 835 affordable Brooklyn homes

Brooklyn, NY Department of Social Services (DSS) commissioner Molly Wasow Park, and Institute of Community Living (ICL) president Jody Rudin celebrated the opening of 182 deeply affordable homes at 2886 Atlantic Ave. for New Yorkers exiting the shelter system. The opening of the building marks the first Affordable Housing Services (AHS) site in the city, and the creation of 835 deeply affordable homes through the AHS pipeline, which has now passed the significant milestone of more than 1,000 awarded or open units.

DSS’s ground-breaking AHS initiative leverages CityFHEPS vouchers to create high-quality homes for New Yorkers in shelter who’ve faced significant, long-term barriers to finding stable housing. ICL will operate and manage this building, leveraging 40 years of experience in helping tens of thousands of New Yorkers achieve stable, fulfilling lives through housing, behavioral health care, and recovery services.

The innovative program builds on DSS’s record-breaking progress connecting New Yorkers to subsidized housing while addressing the disproportionate impact of a historic low in the housing vacancy rate on low-income New Yorkers. In Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25), DSS connected more than 37,500 shelter residents to permanent homes using rental subsidies, which is the highest number of subsidized placements of any year in more than two decades. The majority of New Yorkers relied on CityFHEPS to move out of shelter, reflecting the ongoing and exponential growth of the CityFHEPS program. Today, more than 60,000 households comprising of 136,000 New Yorkers are using CityFHEPS -- the second largest rental subsidy program in the nation -- for their housing. 

“With New York City facing an historically low housing vacancy rate, we cannot rely on the status quo to meet the moment. We must leverage our resources in new and innovative ways to create desperately needed affordable housing, and with the Affordable Housing Service initiative, we are thrilled to do just that,” said Park. “This project would not be possible without partnerships, and we are proud to work with the Institute for Community Living and Camber to bring this incredible facility to life. We are so happy to welcome families into their new homes here and very much look forward to creating similar opportunities for hundreds of other households currently residing in shelter as we open additional AHS sites across the city.”

There are more than 13,000 households with CityFHEPS vouchers in the city’s shelter system that are unable to find housing due to the city’s severe housing shortage today. AHS has created a much-needed new scalable pathway out of shelter. Through the program, the city helps nonprofits purchase or enter long-term, building-wide leases to create deeply affordable housing with 30-year or 9-year contracts leveraging social services dollars — locking in long-term affordability with strong protections for tenants. With 835 AHS units already open, there are more than 200 additional units in the pipeline of which nearly 150 are scheduled to open next year.

The AHS site at 2886 Atlantic Ave. is owned and managed by not-for-profit human services provider ICL. The organization has deep expertise in helping households overcome unique barriers to obtain long-term housing stability and has helped countless New Yorkers break the cycle of homelessness. The site will provide housing for families and single adults alongside light-touch tenant supports.

The city has opened, or is in the process of opening, AHS sites with various not-for-profit providers, including Riseboro, the Fortune Society, Community Housing Innovation, VIP Community Services, and Services for the Underserved. DSS continues to develop the AHS pipeline, working with various not-for-profit providers to identify new, high-quality proposals as the agency uses every tool at its disposal to increase the housing supply for New Yorkers in need.

The announcement builds on the Adams administration’s historic efforts in combatting the city’s housing crisis. Last December, mayor Adams celebrated the passage of “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity,” the most pro-housing proposal in city history that will build 80,000 new homes over 15 years and invest $5 billion towards critical infrastructure updates and housing. In total, the Adams administration has committed $24.5 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a generational housing crisis. Mayor Adams celebrated both?back-to-back record breaking fiscal years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing.

“The Atlantic is a model for what’s possible when the city, nonprofit organizations, and private partners come together with urgency and vision,” said Jody Rudin, president and CEO of the Institute for Community Living (ICL). “Just minutes from our East New York Health Hub, this development reflects ICL’s ‘whole health’ approach, recognizing that housing, health, and recovery are all deeply connected. For the New Yorkers moving in today, these beautiful new homes are more than apartments; they are the foundation for stability, wellness, and opportunity. At ICL, we believe housing is the best prescription, and The Atlantic is proof that when we invest in people and place, we change lives.”

“Today’s ribbon cutting is an important milestone in New York City’s ongoing effort to solve the housing crisis through innovative means” said Rick Gropper, principal at Camber Property Group. “With tens of thousands of New Yorkers in the shelter system every night, we must implement innovative programs and financing tools as we are doing at here to create new permanent affordable housing. The Atlantic is a true public-private partnership and we are proud to collaborate with Mayor Adams and his administration, ICL and DSS on this conversion project.”