COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Building Community. Growing Leaders.
We strive to increase affordable housing in Cypress Hills, and make Cypress Hills a healthier and more energy efficient community.
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Fresh Food Markets and Healthy Food Access
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Urban Agriculture and Community Gardening
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Affordable Housing Development (investment against displacement)
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Manufacturing Development (development of safe and sustainable spaces)
Contact:
Jessica Bartolini
Director of Community Development
2966 Fulton St
Brooklyn, NY 11208-1009
Administered by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, in partnership with Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, the Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program (BACPP) provides eligible low- to middle-income homeowners living in one- to three-family homes in East New York and Cypress Hills, Brooklyn (Community District 5) with low-interest, no-interest, or even forgivable, loans to convert their basement or cellar into a safe, legal, and rentable apartment.
The homeowner is also provided with the technical assistance needed to close on a loan and complete the construction project. This pilot program will help to create safe housing for tenants or occupants while providing homeowners an opportunity to earn rental income.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For information on loan terms and the program, see the BACPP term sheet,
La versión en espanol de este formulario está aqui
More information can be found on this website: www.nyc.gov/basementconversion
This program is no longer accepting new applicants. If you would like to join a waiting list to be notified if similar opportunities open up in the future, please email eny-basement@cypresshills.org
Contact:
Ryan Chavez
Program Director, Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program
2685 Pitkin Avenue 11208 Brooklyn, NY
Basement Apartment Conversion Pilot Program (BACPP)
Community Advocates
Our community advocates work to improve the quality of life in Cypress Hills by increasing access to healthy food, assisting with SNAP and other benefits applications, and connecting residents to health resources and information. Located at our Chestnut Commons Community Center, 276 Chestnut Street, Brooklyn, NY 11208.
Urban Gardening
As part of a previous program to make Cypress Hills a healthy, sustainable place to live, we develop community gardens on vacant land in the community, turning blighted spaces into green and thriving ones. In partnership with East New York Farms, we work with existing gardens in Cypress Hills and East New York to expand membership and recruit volunteers, update infrastructure, and provide hands-on technical and outreach assistance.
Community Garden Locations:
The People’s Garden — 2358/2362 Pitkin Avenue - Retired
Ashford Street Abundant Garden — 330 Ashford Street
Ashford Learning Garden — 341 Ashford Street
Glenmore Grows Garden — 492-496 Glenmore Avenue
Chestnut Street Garden — 9 Chestnut Street
Farmstand
CHLDC manages a farmstand on Fridays July to November, which is staffed by young people from the community. The markets are affordable and provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables at their prime when they are the tastiest and most nutritious. The markets accept cash, debit, credit, and EBT. We participate in the New York City Health Bucks program. We also host cooking classes and nutrition workshops.
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SNAP (Supplement Nutrition Program)
SNAP, the New York State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is the new name for the food stamp program. SNAP benefits help low-income working people, senior citizens, the disabled and others feed their families healthy food.
SNAP issues monthly electronic benefits that can be used like cash at authorized retail food stores and participating farmers markets. Eligibility and benefit levels are based on household size, income, assets and other factors.
CHLDC is assisting residents with the SNAP application (New York State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) process through the Access NYC portal. For assistance in completing the online application as a first-time applicant or as someone who is re-certifying, please contact us at (732) 860-8589 or email healthy@cypresshills.org.
Contact:
healthy@cypresshills.org
(732) 860-8589
Affordable Housing
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Our affordable housing work is critical to fulfilling our mission. Since 1990, CHLDC has built approximately 400 affordable housing units across the neighborhood and brought nearly $100 million of affordable housing investment to the Cypress Hills / East New York community. This work includes new rental and condominiums developments, as well as gut renovations of rental properties and owner-occupied homes. We are strong advocates of permanent and deep affordability. Nearly all of our units are built for households making below 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), and a third of those apartments are for very low and extremely low income households. We hold our development projects to high standards of environmental stewardship. In this way, we ensure that the residents of our properties live in homes that are healthy and safe.
Manufacturing Development
The provision and availability of a steady, living wage job is the foundation for any community. CHLDC believes that it can leverage the significant stock of manufacturing land in the Cypress Hills / East New York community to help support existing businesses, to animate vacant and underutilized land and, perhaps most importantly, to create the types of jobs that provide a living wage and good benefits. As a result, CHLDC has made it a strategic priority to provide employment and training opportunities for community residents through the development of safe and sustainable industrial spaces.
If you are interested in finding space for your business, or would like more information about our manufacturing development initiatives, contact us.
Contact: Position to be Filled
Director, Community Development
Retrofitting
Small home retrofits may include addressing moisture and humidity, leaky roofs and windows, damp basements, pest management, water efficiency and green cleaning. These efforts protect the environment, improve the condition of small homes and help homeowners save on their energy bills.
We are currently not accepting any more applications to retrofit homes – please email healthyhome@cypresshills.org if you would like to be notified when this resumes.
If you’re looking for a particular service, but don’t know the name of the program, head to the “How Can We Help You?” form so a program staff member can contact you directly.