West 59th Street Shelter in Construction

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Construction has begun on the new West 59th Street Shelter, a modern purpose-built building that has been designed to provide the most rehabilitative environment for clients we serve. Building features include:

  • 200 beds for single women in dorm-style rooms

  • 1,500-square-foot medical clinic, Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that is open to the community

  • Offices and programming space for social services and recreation

  • An outdoor terrace space for shelter residents to use

  • 800-square-foot commercial kitchen to serve shelter residents

Shelter Staff, Services & Programs

Project Renewal will offer a wide array of clinical and recreational groups throughout the day and evenings to engage clients in meaningful activities. The building has been designed with plentiful purpose-built indoor and outdoor spaces that allow for participation.

Project Renewal will have more than 70 multidisciplinary staff members dedicated to operations and social services, in addition to security personnel, to engage and assist clients. These include a director, supervisors, intake coordinator, social workers, nurses, psychiatrists, recreation specialist, occupational therapist, entitlements specialist, housing specialists, and residential aides. Project Renewal will have staff present 24/7 to ensure the overall safety of the building. Services will include and are not limited to:

  • Psychiatry

  • Occupational therapy

  • Case management

  • Housing coordination

  • Benefits coordination

  • Recreational programs

  • Three meals a day, plus snacks

The Department of Homeless Services will oversee Project Renewal’s operation of the site to ensure the program is operating well to serve our clients and the community.

Security

  • All residents have an 11pm curfew and there is a no-visitor policy.

  • A security company will be contracted to provide security within the building and around its perimeter. 

  • All guards will be licensed security guards and will receive an additional 40-hour training and Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Training. 

  • PRI will also provide training to guards that includes, but is not limited to, verbal de-escalation training, boundary training, training material that provides an overview of the clients in the building, access equipment and procedure training. 

  • The security team will have an assigned account manager that will visit the site regularly, in addition to PRI’s in-house Security team.

Medical Clinic Services

A medical clinic located in the building will serve shelter clients and local community members, thus expanding health care access for low-income neighbors.

  • As a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC), our clinic is required to provide care to all community members.

  • Services will include primary care, women’s health, gender affirming care, HIV treatment, behavioral health services, and care management. Services will be offered in-person and via telehealth.

  • Doctors will prescribe any medication patients may need, but no medication—including Suboxone—will be dispensed on site. In our experience, less than 5% of individuals we will be serving are prescribed Suboxone.

Timeline

  • The Department of Homeless Services and Project Renewal notified the community of plans for the shelter project in December 2020.

  • In February 2022, Project Renewal and our co-developer the Hudson Companies completed the purchase of the former Manhattan Neighborhood Network building at 537 West 59th Street.

  • In Spring 2023, the project team began demolishing the existing building and preparing for construction.

  • As of Winter 2024, construction has begun on a nine-story building with a modern, purpose-built shelter for single women with mental health diagnoses.

  • The shelter is scheduled to open in 2025.

Community engagement

Project Renewal greatly values relationships with our neighbors and community members at all sites we operate.

  • We have reached out to and met with many local stakeholders about the shelter, including Fordham University, Touro College, John Jay College, Mt. Sinai West, our neighbors at The Element, the Heschel School, and the Lincoln Square BID.

  • Project Renewal has met several times with Community Board 7 to update them on plans for the shelter.

  • Closer to the shelter opening, a DHS-organized Community Advisory Board will be formed to ensure communication between the shelter and surrounding community and enable us to hear from stakeholders to quickly address any issues that are raised.

Relationship to Gertrude Ederle Park

The shelter will be located adjacent to Gertrude Ederle Park and Recreation Center.

  • The building’s third-floor terrace is enclosed by a vertical six-foot high fence and the entire terrace will be 18 feet higher than the park. The entrance to the shelter will be set back and 100 feet away from the park entrance, which is a single gate.

  • There is clear physical and visual separation between the shelter and the playground.

  • The team has had extensive conversations with NYC Parks regarding construction logistics and shelter operations. During construction, Project Renewal will fund a Seasonal Program Associate for NYC Parks onsite.

  • The site will have security guards onsite who will complete perimeter walks that will cover the Park.

  • Shelter residents will be expected to observe all applicable NYC Parks rules, including those that prohibit use of the playground if not in the company of a child.

  • Clients in the building wishing to smoke will be directed to the third-floor terrace. 

  • In front of the ground-floor entrance to the building, which is set back from the sidewalk, there will be a courtyard that is walled off from the park and mostly walled off from the street, where clients coming into the shelter can finish their cigarettes before entering the building. There will be no sightlines from the courtyard to the park. 

  • One of the intentions behind the courtyard design was to ensure that clients who smoke can finish their cigarettes there and not on the sidewalk. Clients will not be sent out from the building to smoke in the courtyard; they will be directed to the third-floor terrace.

Contract

The City's contract is over the duration of 40 years. Annual operating costs are also included in the 40-year contract. 

  • The contract covers rent at significantly lower cost than rental from a private landlord, and provides for non-profit ownership of a purpose-built shelter which allows for clearer accountability around maintenance of the facility and more efficient use of City funds. 

  • This contract structure does not change accountability for providers. They are regularly reviewed and renewed, and it is not a 40-year guarantee to Project Renewal as the provider.

Project Renewal: Renewing Lives, Reclaiming Hope for More than 55 Years

Project Renewal launched in 1967 on the Bowery, as one of the nation's first successful treatment programs for people struggling with alcoholism and homelessness. Since then, we have created innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of the New Yorkers we serve, including:

  • the city’s first residential and work rehab program for people experiencing homelessness and alcoholism (1970).

  • the nation’s first non-medical detox center (1976).

  • one of the city’s first transitional housing programs for people with mental health diagnoses (1990).

  • the city’s first social purpose catering company, employing New Yorkers with histories of homelessness, incarceration, and substance use disorder (1997).

  • the city’s first shelter-based dental clinic (2003).

  • one of the first shelter-based occupational therapy programs designed to prepare older New Yorkers for independent living (2005).

  • the nation’s first mobile mammography clinic (became a Project Renewal program in 2007).

  • one of the city’s first eco-friendly transitional housing facilities (2011).

  • the city’s first shelter for LTGBTQIA+ young adults (2016).

  • the city’s first diversion center, providing stabilizing services and long-term care referrals to individuals experiencing mental health or substance use crisis, as an alternative to jails and emergency rooms (2020).

Today, we continue this pioneering course as a leading provider of health, homes and jobs for New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

In 2022, through our HOMES programs:

  • we provided shelter, transitional housing, or permanent housing to 3,768 people.

  • we placed 297 people out of shelter into housing, amid an unprecedented housing crisis.

  • 85% of residents placed in our permanent homes were still living independently after one year.

  • 99% of our shelter clients placed into housing stayed out of the shelter system for at least a year.

In 2022, through our HEALTH programs:

  • 8,112 people received substance use disorder treatment, medical care, or psychiatric services.

  • we saw each patient an average of 3.39 times.

  • 1,702 received mammograms on our ScanVan, the nation’s first mobile mammography clinic.

  • 1,111 visited our mobile medical clinics.

  • 1,555 participated in occupational therapy programming.

  • 333 visited our shelter-based dental clinic, the only such clinic in New York City.

In 2022, through our JOBS programs:

  • 410 job placements were secured.

  • our clients’ average hourly wage was $17.01 – 29% higher than the NY State minimum wage.

  • 96% of our Next Step Internship Program graduates were placed in jobs.

  • 1,277,500 meals were served by our City Beet Kitchens catering company, which employs 23 of our Culinary Arts Training Program graduates and feeds more New Yorkers experiencing homelessness than any other organization.