The Herkimer Street building in Brooklyn is one of 4 projects in The Bridge pipeline that will provide housing for homeless adults with serious mental illness, and for the first time, in an integrated building with low-income families. The Herkimer Street building in Brooklyn will be our first mixed use or integrated building which will offer housing and support services for 20 young adults aging out of foster care and/or the children's mental health system, 20 adults recovering from serious mental illness, and 20 low-income families from the community. 

Mixed-use housing for homeless is a model supported by the New York State Office of Mental Health that integrates people with mental illness into a building with families and other individuals. As outlined in the "Guiding Principles for the Redesign of OMH Housing and Community Support Policies, May 2007," this model helps to reduce stigma associated with mental illness, is more accepted by communities because it provides much needed housing for community residents, and it provides opportunities for recovery and rehabilitation.

The Bridge has now signed a contract of sale for the vacant piece of land for development and DeLaCour & Ferrara Architects have completed a feasibility study that determines the size of the building, number of units it can accommodate based on the zoning, a schematic design and layout as well as the costs to build. The next step in the process will be environmental reviews and approvals and a financing plan with support from OMH and low-income housing tax credits.

As with our other new developments, we are very excited about exploring green building elements such as solar energy and materials that will help to save energy costs as well as being good for the environment.