A New Place to Call Home: East River House

Posted on 3/26/2010 by The Bridge

As of December 30th, 2009 we have opened our largest residence to date – our 41-bed East River House located in East Harlem. We have been planning this project for several years and with the support of New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), we purchased the property in March of 2006 and began construction in January 2008. The design is by DeLaCour and Ferrara Architects, and the general contractor is Rende Contracting Corporation. We would also like to thank the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) for providing a small loan toward the acquisition.

East River House will be home to 41 adult men and women with serious mental illness who are referred from Bellevue Hospital’s inpatient psychiatric unit, Kings County Hospital inpatient psychiatric unit, Manhattan Psychiatric and Rockland Psychiatric Centers, and the Brooklyn Mental Health Court. Like our other residences and scatter-site apartments, East River House can help halt the cycle between hospital, shelter and jail for these individuals and provide them with shelter and comprehensive services that will help them move on to more independent housing and lead more productive lives.

These on-site services include:

  • Peer counselor assistance
  • Case management
  • Entitlements counseling
  • Psychiatric rehabilitation including (symptom management, socialization, community integration, discharge planning from day one)
  • Substance abuse treatment
  • 24/7 front desk coverage
  • Computer training
  • Benefits assistance
  • An evening meal prepared by a cook
Residents will have access to building amenities such as a laundry room, computers, a community room with a kitchen and a large backyard for outdoor activities. In addition to fulfilling the needs of our consumers, our housing program has made an initiative to meet the needs of our environment by becoming more eco-friendly. East River House includes green elements such as ENERGY STAR windows and appliances, central a/c and heating.

Besides being our largest residence to date, East River House is also noted for being one of the first Bridge residences to use low-income housing tax credits (the other housing project is The Bridge Revitalization [HUD 202]). Other sources of financing are from Dormitory Authority of the State of NY (DASNY) bonds, and OMH rent subsidies and service dollars. Tenants also contribute 30% of their annual income as rent.


Take a look inside East River House:





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