The Hudson Mainstay Affordable and Supportive Housing Competition

The Hudson Mainstay references the nautical term mainstay, which is the rope that stabilizes the two masts on a sailboat and is used to mean “chief support.” Permanent, safe, and affordable housing is the mainstay of a strong vital community. We propose to repurpose Bayview, which previously served as a boarding home for merchant sailors and a women’s correctional facility, into a permanent home centering women and gender expansive people who are justice-impacted and without housing. Residents and the community at large will find pathways to wellness and economic empowerment through education, workforce training and development, the arts, wellness, and comprehensive, caring, supportive services. A new beacon, The Hudson Mainstay will serve as a chief support, a mainstay, to its tenants and the West Chelsea community.

The building will become a twelve-story, 100-unit, mixed-use, 100% permanently affordable, supportive housing development. Sixty (60) of the apartments will be permanent supportive housing, with a particular focus on marginalized women and gender expansive people and families, including those who: are unhoused; face serious mental illnesses (“SMI”); face; substance use disorders (SUD”); and justice-involved people re-integrating back into the community; and veterans. The remaining 40 apartments will be LIHTC units affordable to lower-income renter households in the community, with units at 30% Area Median Income (“AMI”) and 60% AMI. Nearly 50% of the affordable apartments are family-sized 2 and 3 BR units. Thirty-five percent of all of the units, and nearly 25% of the supportive housing apartments, are in 2 and 3 BR units, providing much needed family-sized housing. Family-sized housing is particularly critical to the reunification of families for those leaving the justice system.

Resident amenities and programs prioritize building resident needs, including 1,800 sf supportive service office, over 2,000 sf of indoor amenities and 8,200 sf of outdoor amenity space with 3 outdoor terraces located at the 5th, 9th and 11th floors. Supportive services will be aimed at helping the new residents get the assistance they need to gain and maintain independence and stability and facilitate access to critical resources in the community. Support services will be provided by HousingPlus from supportive service space on the ground floor, providing easily accessible support service and service staff office space located just off the lobby near the building’s elevators.

Community programming will be responsive to demonstrated community needs. The 15.500 sf Hudson Mainstay Community Center will be a home for a Center for Workforce Development and a Center for Arts and Learning. Workforce development programming will feature education and training leading to a number of career paths in growing industries, for youth and adults, together with job readiness and wraparound support: the food industry (Hot Bread Kitchen); technology (Per Scholas training and Hood Code programs for middle school students living in NYCHA properties); Construction and Maintenance for women (NEW—Non- Traditional Employment for Women); job readiness, wraparound services, and social enterprise work (Housing Works). The Center for Arts and Learning will be anchored by ArtsConnection, a 45-year old organization that will provide its broad array of arts programs for building residents and public school teens from the community, including curating, arts-making, exhibition program, internships, college and career readiness.