The Department of Homeless Services has taken over Building 3 at the former Greenpoint Hospital site on Skillman Avenue, an indefinite hold that is blocking the conversion of the structure into 107 affordable senior housing units with Section 8 subsidies. Elected officials and housing activists rallied at the site to demand the city commit to a concrete timeline for releasing the building, according to The Greenline.
The units had been designed so that seniors would pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. DHS moved in after an emergency order required the closure of the Bellevue shelter, and the agency has announced no timeline for when it will vacate Building 3.
The broader Kingsland Commons development at the former Greenpoint Hospital campus has been more than four decades in the making. North Brooklyn residents and community organizations spent over 40 years pushing the city for affordable housing on the site; in 2018, the city agreed to a plan for more than 550 new 100 percent affordable apartments for seniors, families, and individuals, alongside a rebuilt 200-bed homeless shelter. The first stage opened in 2026: that 200-bed shelter, run by Project Renewal. When the men’s shelter relocated from Building 3 to the new facility, DHS moved into Building 3 and converted it into an assessment center, per The Greenline.
DHS has taken over Building 3 for use as an assessment center, delaying plans for the 107 affordable senior units. “These units were intended to include Section 8 subsidies, so that seniors would pay no more than 30% of their income towards rent. Without a planned timeline from DHS, the future of this much-needed affordable senior housing remains uncertain,” Karen Leader of the Greenpoint Renaissance Enterprise Corporation (GREC), one of the community organizations that fought for affordable housing at this site for four decades, said at the rally, as quoted by The Greenline. “We say: No more uncertainty. We demand accountability, transparency, and commitment for when building 3 will be returned its intended purpose.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso also spoke. “We’re supposedly in a housing crisis. People don’t have homes. We have the largest population of people in homeless shelters in this entire city’s history. And we have a solution. And they’re going to slow that solution down because they’re looking at papers and numbers and not at people,” Reynoso said, per The Greenline. He was explicit that the rally was not aimed at unhoused residents: “We want to provide homes to the homeless, and that’s why we’re here today.”
The DHS presence also blocks another piece of the redevelopment plan. As long as the agency holds Building 3, the section of Skillman Avenue running alongside it cannot be converted into the pedestrian plaza that was part of the Kingsland Commons agreement, according to The Greenline.
The coalition is calling on DHS to provide transparency, commit to a clear timeline for vacating the site, and remove truck parking and laundry operations currently on the property that are also preventing the housing project from moving forward. Those at the rally included Dan Wiley, district director for U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez; Rolando Guzman, deputy director of community preservation for St. Nicks Alliance; and Debra Benders, president of the Cooper Park Resident Council. A petition in support of the senior housing development is available online.
Frank Lang, director of affordable housing policy and advocacy for St. Nicks Alliance, said a second building on the campus would soon begin marketing on NYC Housing Connect, per The Greenline. That building will hold 300 affordable units, 93 reserved for the formerly homeless and the remainder for singles and families; construction is estimated to finish by end of 2026.
“This protest is about preserving the future of affordable housing and ensuring the community is not left in the dark about decisions that affect our neighborhood,” Benders said at the rally, per The Greenline. “It’s about giving us the space that we need for seniors and affordable housing for anybody that could be homeless.”
Featured image: Courtesy northbrooklynnews.com
