YONKERS, NY – December 20, 2007 – Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins applauded the recent announcement by Governor Spitzer that Childrens Village has been approved for a $4.9 financing grant to renovate 112 affordable housing units located on its Dobbs Ferry campus. The funding is part of larger financing package that is providing a total of $43.9 million from two state housing agencies toward constructing or renovating 800 affordable housing units across the state.
Sen. Stewart-Cousins called Dr. Jeremy C. Kohomban, president and chief executive of Childrens Village, with the good news last week. The money will go toward replacing roofs, windows, electrical wiring, boilers, kitchen and bath fixtures in fourteen two-story garden apartments used to house staff members of Childrens Village and other local non-profit organizations. Sidewalks and driveways around the buildings will also be repaired.
This is a community investment with immeasurable benefits and signals a strong commitment from all of us working together for affordable housing, said Sen. Stewart-Cousins. The key to maintaining the economic well-being of our communities is providing affordable housing for working families, and I am pleased that the New York State Housing Finance Agency and New York State Affordable Housing Corporation have awarded this significant grant to Children’s Village in support of a much needed renovation project.
Childrens Village is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that has been serving at-risk children and their families in New York for over 150 years. The fourteen buildings units on its campus that will be renovated are part of the states Mitchell-Lama housing program, which provides affordable housing for working families and people on fixed incomes.
This fall, Sen. Stewart-Cousins testified at a Division of Housing and Community Renewal hearing in White Plains and called for stronger protection of Mitchell-Lama and other government-sponsored affordable housing programs.
