'New Beginning On Life': Supportive Housing Complex Opens On UWS

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Diane Holt's life went from disaster to dream in just a moment, when she found a new home.

"It's a new beginning on life," Holt, 63, told Patch. "The place is beautiful, it is like a dream for me."

Holt was among the first to move into a brand new housing complex — part homeless shelter and part supportive living for low-income seniors — that opened its doors on West 108th Street, in between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, in November 2021.

Holt had recently spent 90 days in a difficult living situation — "that was a disaster," she said — and was frightened of what she might find at Valley Lodge, the transitional shelter for older adults run out of WSFSSH at West 108.

"I was scared," Holt said. "But everything worked out well."

Life for homeless New Yorkers has never been easy, but the pressures of a global pandemic and an erratic economy have only exacerbated the challenges they face.

This challenge is one Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to address through a new initiative that focuses on New Yorkers who sleep in city subways.

"No more smoking, no more doing drugs, no more sleeping, no more doing barbecues on the subway system — those days are over," Adams said during the February press conference announcing his Subway Safety Plan .

"Swipe your MetroCard, ride the system, get off at your destination."

But homeless advocates say the plan has already hit snags which cannot be fixed with the mayor's promised "modifications" to a plan that doesn't address the definitive problem: homes, or lack thereof.

“You make the neighborhood feel better or you make people on the subway feel better, but you’re not solving the problem,” Beth Haroules, senior staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, told THE CITY.

“It’s a very magical kind of thinking that we’re going to get people out of the subway when you don’t have any place to put them."

As New York City real estate prices skyrocket, the shelter system has seen populations rise, specifically among older people, for the majority of the last 25 years, city data show.

The number of homeless people in New York City is notoriously difficult to estimate as much of census data relies upon one important number, an address.

But as of Monday, the city was providing shelter to about 45,000 people, 14 percent of whom were older than 55, the Department of Homeless Services told Patch.

Between 2004 and 2017, city shelters saw the number of residents 55 and older spike by 250 percent, according to the city. The number of homeless people 65 and older rose over 300 percent.

Fixed income, costly medical care and uncertain citizenship status — elderly immigrants are more than 50 percent more likely to live in poverty — all contribute to an increase in homeless seniors expected to reach 6,900 by 2030, according to extensive City Council report.

"The factors of limited mobility, language barriers, and cultural norms can exacerbate the housing challenges seniors face," the report states. "Seniors are one population in New York City particularly at risk of homelessness."

Yet despite the growing numbers, Paul Freitag, executive director of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, says Valley Lodge is one of the few homeless shelters built specifically for older New Yorkers.

It is not just any shelter either, it is one built in a state-of-the-art building, with a laundry list of services, and a direct route for residents to transition into permanent houisng.

This is why residents, electeds and neighbors cheer a sleek new building with large windows and a spacious lobby you might have strolled past on a recent walk along on West 108th Street, which Upper West Side Council Member Gale Brewer called the "project of the decade."

Said Brewer, "It has provided us with a bold roadmap—a clear model—of the approach we need to take as a city to combat our affordability crisis."

This building offers amenities akin to its ritzy neighbors' — such as outdoor space, a laundry room bike storage, Wi-Fi, a staffed lobby — and others they don't have, such as healthcare services.

The Department of Homeless Services has a long-running partnership with the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing organization that it told Patch it looks forward to continuing as the new 108th Street building gets to full capacity.

“The Valley Lodge Shelter exemplifies the excellent work our staff and dedicated partners do every day to provide vulnerable individuals with the high-quality services and supports they need and deserve to get back on their feet, as well as what can be achieved with community support of this shared goal," a spokesperson from DHS told Patch. "We are proud of our long-running partnership with (WSFSSH) in service of these shared goals and we look forward to building on our progress together as we reopen the recently redeveloped West 108th Street site."

The West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing property contains nearly 200 new units of affordable housing and 110 bed for Valley Lodge.

The affordable units include 119 studios for formerly homeless individuals, 53 one-bedrooms, and eight three-bedrooms.

Residents of the 119 supportive housing studios will pay 30 percent of their income in rent. Roughly 60,000 people applied for 70 of affordable apartments through the city's housing lottery, according to Freitag.

The building is bringing more than new neighbors to West 108th Street , according to Frietag.

The facility will also open the doors of its community space for local events and a federally-qualified health center to walk-ins.

It also provides storage to the Central Park Ambulance Core, a fleet of smaller ambulances made to fit on the famous park's narrow paths.

Valley Lodge may also bring a less tangible but highly valued asset to the neighborhood, according to Freitag.

"We actually presented evidence that there were very few police calls to our shelter," Freitag said. "Valley Lodge was in no way impacting the safety of the block."

The building — already half full and expected to be fully filled by this summer — welcomed its first residents in November 2021 and among them, Dennis Felton, 57.

So far, Felton loves it.

"I love that it's quiet," Felton told Patch. "I love the staff, the staff here is wonderful. They make you feel comfortable."

Staff are important to Felton, not for the services alone, but because he loves the conversations he has with them.

"They have a receptionist at the front desk who is always available to you," Felton said. "For me, that’s good because sometimes I’ll be going through things, and it is not always serious, but I always have someone to talk to."