Affordable & Supportive Family Housing at Van Dyke

Organization Name: CAMBA Housing Ventures, Dattner Architects

Project Title: Affordable & Supportive Family Housing at Van Dyke

Project Location: Brownsville, Brooklyn

Project Description:
Situated on the NYCHA’s Van Dyke Houses campus and developed by CAMBA Housing Ventures, this $56MM new mid-rise LEED Gold building provides 101 units of sustainable, permanent affordable and supportive housing with landscaped areas, and on-site CAMBA social services provided for all tenants. Completed in 2017 the 12-story building includes 44 one-bedroom and 57 two-bedroom units; a computer training center, two flexible community rooms for group activities, laundry room and roof terrace. Van Dyke provides affordable housing for households earning under 60% of AMI and families and with special needs; 30 units are for formerly homeless families; 25 HDC lottery units and 45 units for families on the NYCHA Site Based Waitlist. The “L” shaped building distinguishes the new development from the surrounding NYCHA “bar” buildings and creates a transition between the street and the Van Dyke campus. A dramatic curved corner provides the building with a strong visual identity and recreates the street frontage, providing a gateway to the NYCHA Van Dyke campus. The building features sustainable elements to conserve energy, reduce environmental impacts, and promote the health of residents.

Community Impact:
• Awarded through a competitive RFP, Van Dyke transformed a 11,562 SF underutilized NYCHA parking lot into 101 units of sustainable, permanent supportive and affordable housing, providing $56MM in public/private investment.

• Achieved NYSERDA, Enterprise Green Communities and LEED Gold accreditation. Conserves energy, reduces environmental impacts, and promotes long-term health of residents and the building’s future operations.

• 30 homeless families transitioned successfully to permanent, independent living. Provided economic development for NYCHA residents; CAMBA committed to 25 NYCHA hires over 5 years; 134 hires achieved to date.

• Hired 103 Brooklyn residents during construction, including 8 CB residents; nearly $1.5 million awarded to MWBE firms. Over $7 million in contracts to Brooklyn contractors/subs and $1 million of materials purchased from Brooklyn vendors.

Organization Description:
CAMBA Housing Ventures (CHV) mission is to develop sustainable, energy-efficient buildings that provide safe and affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless families and individuals CHV has developed 2,062 units to date, representing $628 million in public/private investment and worked closely with NYCHA to provided much-needed affordable housing on an underutilized NYCHA parking lot. A leading designer of sustainable, affordable housing, helping to shape and rejuvenate urban neighborhoods, Dattner Architects led the project’s design team.

Team Members:

CAMBA Housing Ventures, New York City Housing Authority, Dattner Architects, Bruno Frustaci Contracting, Steven Winter Associates, Weintraub Diaz Landscape Architecture