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History

WHEDCo was founded in 1991, with a staff of two, borrowed offices, $75,000 from JP Morgan, and a vision of a women-centered housing and economic development in the impoverished Morrisania neighborhood in the Bronx. Within a few short years, staff had designed and launched, Urban Horizons, to national attention-a building comprised of 132 units of dignified affordable housing and office and program space for the delivery of comprehensive community and social services for low-income women and their families. Innovation, leadership, and integrity continues to underpin our commitment to the communities we serve. Fifteen years since its founding, WHEDCo stands as a leading center for economic development in the Bronx, known for the breadth and effectiveness of our family and community work, serving more 3,200 individuals per year.

The Renovation

Urban Horizons emerged from WHEDCo's redevelopment of the Morrisania Hospital in the South Bronx. Described at the time as "the last significant abandoned structure" in the Bronx by [then] Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the building lay empty for 20 years-windowless, surrounded with razor wire and buffered by cinderblocks. But even in its decrepit state, the structure represented a stunning remnant of an age when hospitals, like libraries and schools, were designed to symbolize the grandeur of the public realm. After multiple reviews from the local to state level WHEDCo purchased the building from the City of New York for one dollar.

Design Imperatives Meet Community Effort

From the start, the architectural firm of Becker and Becker worked to maintain the historical significance and integrity of this beautiful neo-renaissance structure. The adaptive re-use of the former Morrisania Hospital was no easy task. It required creative planning, dogged negotiation with City and State housing agencies, as well as exhaustive technical problem solving in restoration techniques and value engineering. Nor was the restoration a top down process. Committed to working with local and minority-owned businesses, suppliers, contractors and laborers-WHEDCo hired a Bronx-based contracting firm and workers from the local community (nearly 80 percent) to restore the building.

At this time, WHEDCo also cultivated a cadre of neighborhood women in the South Bronx who advised staff in developing the Urban Horizons project. This group, Bronx United Sisterhood Together (B.U.S.T.), served as WHEDCo's community advisory committee in the planning of Urban Horizons. In addition, WHEDCO worked closely in an advocacy alliance with the Parents' Association of a local public school P.S. 235, which sought half of the former hospital site for a new public school. WHEDCO and the Parents' Association worked together to achieve a set of shared goals: next to Urban Horizons now resides the Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magnet School (CES/CIS 218), where WHEDCO is proud to offer After-school programs and Family Support services.

Capital Financing

WHEDCo first obtained a $4.5 million non-amortizing 30-year loan from the New York State Homeless and Housing Assistance Corporation. The New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal Housing Trust Fund then provided a $6.3 million 30-year loan with 1% interest payable annually. The project received over $12 million in equity through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program and was syndicated by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, at the time the largest tax credit investment in New York State. The project also received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop a commercial kitchen and the Empire State Development Corporation provided a $294,000 grant to create a Child Care Center.

The Opening

Urban Horizons opened its doors in 1997. As Paul Goldberger said at Urban Horizons, "If we salute anything today, let it be the understanding that architecture and preservation and community development and housing and economic development and medical care and day care and job creation are all one thing, and that they need to be seen as all one thing - as all needing each other, and together making each other work."

WHEDCo celebrated our official ribbon-cutting with the school three years later. On April 19, 2000, [then] Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, [then] New York Civil Liberties Union President Norman Siegel, [then] Parents' Association President Sylvia Rosario, and WHEDCo President Nancy Biberman celebrated Urban Horizons before a crowd of over 100 people. After a rousing street-side performance that included cast members from the Broadway hit, "Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in "Da Funk," a group that included former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, journalist Meredith Vieira, and Bronx-born writers Vivian Gornick and Avery Corman the red ribbon was cut to mark the day's historical meaning.

Urban Horizons Today

Since its founding, Urban Horizons has earned numerous awards including the Municipal Art Society's Livable Cities Award (1996), the Fannie Mae Foundation's Maxwell Award for Excellence for the Production of Low-Income Housing (1998), and the HUD Secretary's Opportunity and Empowerment Award from the American Planning Association (2000). The building was also featured in "Bronx by Design: High-End Architecture Inspires Low-Income Home-Making," a 2004 photo exhibit at the National Arts Club, and a cover feature in Shelterforce Magazine (Spring 2004) entitled "Beauty in the Bronx."

Today, the residents of Urban Horizons earn an average income of $24,780 (and a median of $20,800). 30% of the units are set aside for families who are seeking permanent housing after having been in the homeless shelter system. At $13,776, the average income of this group is significantly less than their counterparts (their median income is $9,500). However, over two-thirds of the 132 families who moved in upon the building's opening in 1997 continue to reside here today. Moreover, according to a 2003 study of the tenants who were unemployed and/or on public assistance when they moved into the building, only 14% remain on public assistance. Of those who became employed and left welfare during tenancy, the average increase in income was $23,000 - with wage gains varying from slightly less than $10,000 to a high of $50,000.