Get a peek at the renovations in our video!
Nearly 100 people showed up to celebrate the ribbon-cutting for our Stephan Russo Residence on West 107th Street on Tuesday. This freshly-renovated building will provide 14 affordable one-room units for low-income renters and 54 permanent supportive housing units for formerly homeless people.
“For many of the people who will call this home, this is the beginning building blocks of the rest of their life,” said Goddard Riverside President Roderick L. Jones at the opening. “We talk about housing as a foundation. When people have a place to live, they can prepare for work and life, to live with dignity and self-reliance.”
The Single Room Occupancy (SRO) building had been operating as an illegal hotel when Goddard purchased it with our partners, Rockabill Development, in March 2021. We renamed it for former Goddard Executive Director Stephan Russo, a pioneer in the fight against homelessness who helped develop the concept of supportive housing in his nearly 40 years here.
“He’s an incredible leader, so to have this called the Stephan Russo building is really, really special,” said City Council Member Gale Brewer. “And it’s a beautiful building to have named after him, so on all fronts this is a great day in New York.”
Russo himself, visibly moved, said it was “really an honor to have this beautiful, beautiful new supportive housing residence carry my name.” He listed the many ways Goddard Riverside has led in developing solutions to homelessness—including developing some of the first supportive housing residences and establishing the first homeless outreach program in New York City.
“This residence will add to the thousands and thousands of homeless individuals whose lives have been touched by Goddard Riverside,” he said. “So this is not my honor alone. I share it with all those who have worked in the trenches for decades to meet the critical housing needs of some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers.”