Concern Housing, formerly Concern for Independent Living, is one of the largest providers of housing and support services in New York State. Founded in 1972 by the parents and friends of psychiatric patients at the Central Islip State Hospital, Concern currently operates more than 1,300 units of high quality, affordable and supportive housing in over 240 locations across Suffolk and Nassau counties, and Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The nonprofit’s latest project is called Concern Logan that will create 66 affordable and supportive rental apartments in central Brooklyn. All 66 units will be affordable to those with incomes at or below 60% of the area median income (AMI), and 40 will be supportive housing reserved for formerly homeless adults and formerly homeless veterans with psychiatric disabilities.
While there is a tremendous need for supportive housing in the New York City area, Concern faced challenges in securing the financing for this project. The project’s total development costs, which included purchasing the property, demolishing an existing one-story manufacturing facility unsuitable for rehab, and building a nine-story apartment building, exceeded the property’s current value. A conventional lender would not finance a project at that level of loan-to-value.
Concern is a longtime Leviticus borrower, and we were glad to support the nonprofit’s ongoing development work. We provided a $4.6 million loan—our 6th to Concern—to cover the purchase price of the property on Pitkin Avenue as well as other predevelopment costs related to the project. We also secured a $1.1 million participation in the total loan from another community development lender, Partners for the Common Good.
In addition to creating much-needed affordable housing, the new Concern Logan facility will provide formerly homeless individuals with access to a wide variety of community resources to develop and maintain the skills they need for independent living.
