A $55 million affordable housing complex to rise in Yonkers

Diana Dombrowski, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
·2 min read

A dilapidated church at 76 Locust Hill Ave. in Yonkers is gone, making way for a $55 million affordable housing complex packed with eco-friendly features.

Westhab, the developer of the project, hopes to open the facility by the end of 2023.

"It'll be a nice range of real deep affordability to kind of moderate affordability with the formerly homeless component integrated within," said Westhab President and CEO Richard Nightingale. "All the units are interspersed throughout the building. So it's really one cohesive community."

The site is being cleared in preparation for construction.

A rendering of Hudson Hill, a proposed six-story affordable housing in Yonkers
A rendering of Hudson Hill, a proposed six-story affordable housing in Yonkers

Financing for the project was finalized last month, Nightingale said, with $43 million coming from the state, $10 million from private sources and $2 million from Westchester County and the city of Yonkers.

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The state's funds for the project are part of a larger goal of creating or preserving 3,000 affordable, sustainable, and supportive housing units in the state, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement Wednesday.

The development, a six-story, 113-unit apartment building called Hudson Hill, will include 45 units for formerly homeless tenants and on-site supportive services to all tenants.

The horseshoe-shaped building with a courtyard in the middle will have 19 studios, 45 one-bedrooms, 44 two-bedrooms (with one unit for a live-in super) and 5 three-bedrooms.

Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York State Senate Majority Leader, said the Yonkers project is part of a statewide effort to create 3,000 affordable housing units.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York State Senate Majority Leader, said the Yonkers project is part of a statewide effort to create 3,000 affordable housing units.

Hudson Hill will allow for tenants to make up to 60% of the area median income, but, Nightingale said, it will also reach people in lower income brackets:

  • 8 units for people making 30% of AMI

  • 10 units for people making 40% of AMI

  • 5 units for people making 50% of AMI who are formerly homeless

  • 40 units for people making 60% of AMI who are formerly homeless

  • 49 units for people making 60% of AMI

The building will be fully electric, due in part to the Con Edison gas moratorium on multi-family buildings, and construction of the building is focused around energy-conscious technology.

Low impact appliances, electric vehicle charges stations, bike storage and solar panels are some of the green features the building will have. It will also feature an educational exhibit on the building's environmentally-friendly design.

The location is in close proximity to Metro-North, a bus route and downtown, Nightingale said, and residents will have great views from the building.

And Westhab owns a building across the street, 87 Locust Hill Avenue, another affordable housing residence.

"We know this community really well," Nightingale said.

Construction will take about a year, said Andrew Germansky, Westhab's senior vice president of real estate, and people will be able to start applying for the units around June 2023.

In addition to the green design, "We love the location. We love the range of populations," Nightingale said.

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yonkers affordable housing: Hudson Hill project site cleared