440 W 41st Street-Transitional Housing in Midtown Manhattan, New York City
Overview
In October 2022, a newly-renovated, 13-story, 109-unit transitional housing development opened for families experiencing homelessness in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. It is an example of an innovative approach to addressing homelessness, whereby private partners raise the money to buy and renovate properties, nonprofit organizations provide the much-needed on-site social services to the residents, and the local government provides a long-term subsidy to operate the project. Westhab is the non-profit operator of the homeless shelter and provides on-site services, including daycare, social services, adult education, and training.
Context:
- The number of homeless New Yorkers in municipal shelters is now 18 percent higher than it was ten years ago, with the number of homeless single adults 97 percent higher than it was ten years ago (source).
- 1 out of every 106 people in NYC is homeless, and 13% of our nation’s homeless population lives in NYC, outstripping every other city in the U.S. (source).
- Over the course of 2020, 122,926 different homeless adults and children slept in the NYC municipal shelter system. This includes more than 39,300 homeless children (source).
- Homelessness has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression (one page fact sheet, The State of the Homeless report, by Coalition for the Homeless)
- 50,000 migrants stay across 100 hotels and other facilities across in Manhattan (NYTimes)
Mission: Provide transitional housing for families experiencing homelessness – families have a place to call home (up to one year) as they are placed into permanent housing nearby or elsewhere.
