The New York Times ran a wonderful story on Sunday about our newly-renovated Capitol Hall Ð a historic supportive housing residence for previously homeless men and women. Some of the people living there have spent up to 30 years sleeping on the streets. All are now transforming their own lives for the better with a roof over their heads, and help with health, nutrition, job skills and socialization.
“It may be a conceit, but I like to think of such tenants as refugees of a sort, finding havens from life’s vagaries and mishaps,” writes veteran Times reporter Joseph Berger.
He goes on to tell his own story of refuge at Capitol Hall: Berger stayed at the building in 1950, when it was still a Single-Room Occupancy hotel, after he and his family fled postwar Europe.
Goddard Riverside Community Center acquired Capitol Hall in the 1980s in partnership with members of the local community, who staged an extraordinary effort to preserve it for its low-income residents. In 2013, we launched a $16.7-million renovation to brighten the aging interiors and give each resident his or her own bathroom and kitchenette. Read more about this storied building’s renewal in the Times Ð or in the West Side Rag or West Side Spirit.
New York Times: The Many Lives of a New York SRO
West Side Spirit: An Upper West Side SRO Gets a Makeover
West Side Rag: “I Was An Agitator”: How Locals Rallied Together To Stop Evictions And Create Supportive Housing