HELP USA, Camber Property Group, and the New York City Department of Social Services have opened HELP Women’s Center at 114 Snediker Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The five-story, 60,000-square-foot facility will begin operations on March 30, serving as a 200-bed intake and assessment center for women entering the shelter system. The project was developed by Camber Property Group, built by Fifth Avenue Builders in partnership with Urban Atelier Group, and designed by Curtis + Ginsberg Architects in collaboration with HELP USA.

The facility is the first in New York City designed specifically as a centralized intake center for women entering shelter, reflecting a shift toward person-centered care. The structure is fully ADA-compliant and includes a mix of private and shared accommodations tailored to residents’ varying medical and mobility needs.

HELP Women’s Center consolidates intake, assessment, and supportive services within a single location. On-site medical and clinical care will be provided in partnership with Project Renewal, alongside dedicated spaces for employment assistance and housing searches. Additional amenities include a communal dining room, commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, a low-stimulation comfort room, and rooftop and outdoor garden spaces. The facility also incorporates a site-specific mural, “Open Light,” by artist Shantell Martin, as part of HELP USA’s Art of Resilience initiative.

Transit near 114 Snediker Avenue includes the Broadway Junction transit hub, which provides access to the New York City Subway via the A, C, J, Z, and L lines, as well as nearby bus routes.

Those whose labors drive this nation on a daily basis increasingly struggle to locate workforce housing. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports essential workers – nurses, police officers, teachers and others – are more and more likely to be priced out of housing near their jobs.

More than 65% of working-age renters, after making their monthly rent payments, lack needed income for daily necessities like food, transportation and healthcare.

One statistic hammers home why the workforce housing shortage has risen to crisis proportions. Workforce housing rents ballooned by 20% or more in most U.S. regions from 2021 to 2025. That surge left not just workers suffering. High rents forced workers to live farther and farther away from their jobs, increasing traffic hassles, placing greater stress on public transit systems and reducing employers’ ability to retain employees.

While the dearth of workforce housing is conspicuous across the U.S., the situation tends to be exacerbated in spots around the nation where home prices have spiked the most. We’re talking regions popular with skiers, beachfront communities, high-priced cities like New York City and Boston, and paradisal settings like Hawai’i.

That’s why an emerging trend of new workforce housing sprouting in such desirable places seems like a novel — and all the more welcome — development.

Reserved housing

In Hawai’i, developer The Howard Hughes Corporation partnered with Hawai’i Community Development Authority (HDCA) to construct workforce housing on O’ahu aimed at “middle” homebuyers under HCDA’s Reserved Housing Program. Residents are afforded the chance to acquire homes at below-market rates in O’ahu, among the most avidly sought of all communities in America’s 50^th State.

Ulana Ward Village, the eighth tower in the Ward Village master-planned community, offers 697 residences available to first-time homebuyers bringing home earnings from 100% to 140% of area median income (AMI). Moderate-income working individuals and families ineligible for traditional subsidized housing are able to acquire these studio to three-bedroom homes, giving them a hitherto unavailable route to homeownership.

Initial purchasers must meet qualification criteria to be placed within the reserved housing program. Once an eventual resale takes place, a portion of the home value is retained by the program to support additional housing development by the state. This shared equity is forecast to swell to more than $150 million in funds that the State of Hawai’I can reinvest into affordable and workforce housing across the islands.

“Ulana Ward Village represents a transformative step forward in O’ahu, creating hundreds of homeownership apartments and fostering long-term stability for kama’aina residents,” says Doug Johnstone, president of the Hawai’i Region and National Condominium Development for Howard Hughes Communities.

Adds Reina Miyamoto, executive director of Hawai’i HomeOwnership Center, “Ulana embodies the kind of opportunity we strive to create every day for local families [allowing] us to reach even more first-time homebuyers and help kama’aina prepare for and sustain homeownership here in Hawai’i.”

City workforce

In gaining desperately needed workforce housing, Hawai’i is being joined by such big cities as New York and Boston. In the former, Camber Property Group and partners among local elected officials have developed Stevenson Square in the Soundview enclave of The Bronx, expected to be completed late next year.

Among other affordable housing units, the development will provide 58 units of 100% affordable co-op homeownership residences through a $49.5 million homeownership program. Among other partners, that program involves NYC Housing Preservation and Development, New York State Homes and Community Renewal, Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County.

In Massachusetts, a program called Welcome Home, Boston spearheaded by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu expanded opportunities for affordable homeownership among low- and moderate-income residents. The focus is on using diverse local developers to create family-sized homes on city-owned land to benefit first-time homeowners. To date, 150 affordable homes have been delivered, with 1,500 more residences now in the development stage.

No single policy will solve New York City’s homelessness crisis on its own, but a little-known program with tremendous potential offers one of the most effective paths from shelter to permanent housing. Affordable Housing Services is a proven model that can help thousands of New Yorkers move into deeply affordable, stable homes, and it deserves a significant role in the incoming administration’s strategy to end homelessness.

At the end of last year, the Institute for Community Living, the New York City Department of Social Services, and Camber Property Group came together to acquire and open The Atlantic in East New York. What was once a vacant, unrealized market-rate building is now home to 183 families and individuals who are finally leaving shelter. For people who have faced years of discrimination and countless barriers in the private rental market, The Atlantic represents something rare: a rapid path to long-term housing stability. And this wouldn’t have happened without AHS.

The AHS program enabled the city and ICL to finance an entire empty market-rate building with a CityFHEPS contract, creating guaranteed rental income that allows ICL to pay the mortgage. Because of this structure, ICL leased every unit to formerly homeless households in under a year. That pace is almost unheard-of in traditional affordable housing development, where new homes can take nearly a decade to become available. It demonstrates what can happen when DSS, nonprofit providers and mission-aligned developers collaborate with urgency and a shared goal.

AHS also represents a creative shift in how the city uses its resources. DSS is traditionally responsible for emergency services and voucher administration. Under then-Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, the agency stepped up to help create the housing supply where these vouchers can be used. It is one of the most inventive uses of social service dollars New York City has seen in years, and during a historic housing shortage this creativity is essential.

Many New Yorkers experiencing homelessness need deeply affordable homes and a landlord committed to their long-term stability. Since nonprofits own and manage these buildings, they are uniquely positioned as landlords dedicated to the well-being of their residents. At ICL, our work does not stop at housing. We connect residents to behavioral health care, primary care and recovery supportive services. Our whole-health model ensures that housing stability is paired with the care people need to thrive.

AHS has already created more than 1,000 deeply affordable units, yet the need is far greater. Nearly 13,000 households in shelters hold vouchers but cannot find a landlord willing to accept them. AHS offers a direct and immediate solution for this part of the homelessness crisis. It creates new units faster than traditional development, reduces the financial and human costs of prolonged shelter stays, and provides stable homes for those who need them most. It is not the only answer to solving homelessness in New York City, but as a scalable pathway from shelter to permanent housing, it is one of the strongest tools we have.

To unlock its full potential, AHS must be part of a broader housing strategy that prioritizes nonprofit ownership and expands creative financing sources for supportive and affordable housing. As we scale housing production, we must also fund the on-site social services and create new funding streams for integrated housing and health care that make stability possible.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ambitious affordable housing goals. To achieve them, we do not need to start from scratch — we can build on what is working. Mayor Mamdani should invest in AHS, scale it and make it a central solution for New Yorkers who are ready to leave shelter for good.

Every New Yorker deserves what residents at The Atlantic now have: a front door, a key and a home to return to.

Jody Rudin is president and CEO of the Institute for Community Living. Rick Gropper is the founding principal of the Camber Property Group.