The Mamdani administration announced on July 1 the financial closing for Sol on Park, a $214 million development that will create 229 permanently affordable homes for older New Yorkers on the New York City Housing Authority’s Morris Houses campus in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.
The project is the city’s largest use to date of the Transfer of Assistance program, a financing tool that lets current public housing residents voluntarily move into newly built affordable units, freeing their original apartments for other NYCHA uses. Of the 229 homes, 80 are reserved for current residents of Morris Houses I and II through that mechanism, 68 are supportive homes for formerly homeless seniors and 80 will be made available through the Housing Connect lottery for low- and middle-income seniors.
The development is a partnership among NYCHA, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), with construction led by the NRP Group, Selfhelp Realty Group and Foxy Management. The building will include 8,100 square feet of community facility space and a new pedestrian plaza, and will be built to LEED Platinum and Passive House standards. Move-ins are expected in early 2029.
“New Yorkers need housing relief, and we’re using every tool at our disposal to deliver it,” Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said in the announcement. “We are building affordable homes, creating opportunities for NYCHA residents and proving that government can act with the urgency this housing crisis demands.”
Planning began in 2019, when NYCHA began engaging Morris Houses residents in community outreach that shaped the building’s design over several years. NYCHA also created an approximately 1,400-square-foot, fully accessible space for the Morris Houses Residents Association inside the development.
“The voluntary Transfer of Assistance opportunity for 80 Morris Houses households, along with new space for resident leadership and programming, reflects the meaningful outcomes that can be achieved when residents are true partners in the process,” said Regina Carter, president of the Morris Houses Residents Association.
Sol on Park will offer on-site services through partnerships with the Union Community Health Center and Green Bronx Machine’s National Health and Wellness Center, along with amenities including bicycle storage, laundry facilities, exercise rooms and computer labs, according to the press release.
“Sol on Park responds to the growing housing needs of New York City’s aging population while simultaneously strengthening the community of NYCHA’s Morris Houses in the Bronx,” said HDC President Eric Enderlin. “HDC looks forward to working with all of our public and private partners to bring more than 220 deeply affordable senior homes to the Morrisania community.”
Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning, called the Transfer of Assistance mechanism at the center of the deal “a success story” and “proof of concept for similar projects across the five boroughs.” NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt said the closing brings the authority “one step closer to delivering a truly remarkable and dignified living experience to hundreds of low- to moderate-income seniors in the Bronx.”
Expanding the Transfer of Assistance program is part of the Mamdani administration’s “Block by Block” housing strategy, released in May, which sets a target of building 200,000 affordable homes and preserving another 200,000 over the next decade. The plan also includes investments in NYCHA building repairs, elevator maintenance, mold remediation and expanded opportunities for resident leadership.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily archive
