Senior housing facility headed for Soundview
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
A 205-unit senior housing
facility is heading to the
Soundview section of the
Bronx after a $245 million
housing development deal was
fi nalized by three New York
City housing organizations on
Friday.
The Casa Celina building
— a $113 million project — will
be constructed on a vacant
parking lot site at the corner of
Watson and Thieriot avenues
at the New York City Housing
Authority’s (NYCHA) Justice
Sonia Sotomayor campus.
The development project
was agreed upon by the NYCHA;
the NYC Department of
Housing Preservation and Development
(HPD); and the NYC
Housing Development Corporation;
and also includes a $132
million, 190-unit Atrium at
Sumner building on NYCHA’s
Sumner Houses campus in
Brookyln’s Bedford-Stuyvesant
neighborhood.
The fi nancial fi gures for
Casa Celina include $43 million
in HDC bonds; $7.7 million
in HDC Extremely Low
& Low-Income Affordability
(ELLA) subsidy; $52.7 million
in Low Income Housing Tax
Credit (LIHTC) equity; and
$9.9 million from other funding
sources.
The Casa Celina building –
named after Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s
mother – is expected
to have 158 studio apartments
and 46 one-bedroom apartments,
as well as one two-bedroom
superintendent apartment.
Sixty-two apartments
will be reserved for homeless
seniors with the remaining
142 apartments available to
households earning at or below
50% of Area Median Income.
Offi cials hope the two
housing projects will address
a need for affordable senior
housing in New York City.
According to caring.com,
a senior living aggregator, the
average cost of senior independent
living in New York City
is $7,540 per month, which is
more than triple the national
median of $2,500.
There continues to be a
pressing need throughout New
York City for affordable senior
housing that enables residents
who have lived and been part of
their communities for decades
to age in place,” said Johnathan
BRONX TIMES R 6 EPORTER, JULY 9-15, 2021 BTR
Gouveia, NYCHA executive
vice president of Real Estate
Development. “NYCHA is
committed to increasing that
supply while creating meaningful
employment and social
service opportunities for public
housing residents and area
seniors in the process.”
According to seniorliving.
com, the median household
income for New York City seniors
is $44,994, which is 19th
in the nation. In New York,
housing is considered affordable
if it costs about onethird
or less of household income,
which in the Bronx is
below $40,088.
According to the press release,
NYCHA residents will
be given preference for 36
of the apartments in the development.
The Casa Celina
complex will also include a
1,725-square-foot community
facility space operated by Jewish
Association Serving the
Aging (JASA), to provide onsite
building and case management,
in-home care and
community-wide programming.
Additionally, Casa Celina
will include a fi tness room,
laundry room, landscaped
roof terrace and resident
lounges on each fl oor to create
social spaces to prevent isolation
for its senior residents.
“Seniors are a top priority
for this Administration’s
ambitious affordable housing
plan,” said HPD Commissioner
Louise Carroll. “Casa
Celina and Atrium promise to
be thriving communities with
seniors receiving the support
they need to prosper. These
nearly 400 new affordable senior
homes, to be built across
two communities in the Bronx
and Brooklyn, are the result of
an incredible team effort with
the New York City Housing
Authority and our development
and supportive housing
partners.”
A rendering of the 205-unit Casa Celina senior housing complex that will
be constructed at the corner of corner of Watson Avenue and Thieriot
Avenue on NYCHA’s Sotomayor Houses campus in the Soundview section
of the Bronx. Rendering courtesy NYC Housing Authority
/caring.com