Open Arms Men’s Shelter Awarded $507,727 Grant for Rehabilitation
The Federal Home Loan Bank of New York announced the award of a $507,727 grant to Grace Church Community Center, Inc., last week, to help finance the rehabilitation of the White Plains-based Open Arms Men’s Shelter, which provides 52 beds in three large congregate dorms for homeless men.
CMS Bank, a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, submitted the application for the funding.
The Federal Home Loan Bank System’s Affordable Housing Program, created in 1989, provides member community lenders with direct subsidies, which are passed on to qualified households through a sponsoring local non-profit organization. AHP financing is combined with other funding sources to create housing for moderate-, low- and very-low-income families. Program awardees receive this funding through semi-annual competitive rounds. Each competing project must be sponsored by a financial organization that is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank in partnership with a community-based sponsoring organization.
“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Affordable Housing Program,” said Alfred A. DelliBovi, president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York in a statement announcing the grant. “In that time, the Home Loan Bank has been honored to partner with both our members and scores of terrific non-profit housing organizations across the region to help build affordable homes. Thanks to the hard work of these community institutions, as well as the support the Program continues to receive from Congress, the AHP has become one of the most successful housing programs in the nation.”
The Open Arms Men’s Shelter currently provides 38 transitional shelter beds and 14 emergency shelter beds to homeless single men in three large congregate dorms. The number of beds will remain the same in the reconfigured facility but will more appropriately house residents in singles, doubles and smaller dorm rooms. There will also be a conversion of the second floor office space to housing as part of the rehabilitation efforts. Additional financing will be provided by the New York State Office of Temporary Disability Assistance Homeless Housing Assistance Program.
The grant is part of $35.5 million in Affordable Housing Program (“AHP”) subsidies that the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York will award as its 2013 AHP grant round. In total, these grants will help finance 48 affordable housing initiatives which will create or preserve 3,072 units of affordable housing, including more than 2,200 units of very low-income housing, in New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
