BrooklynCommunityFoundation

Habitat for Humanity

Helping Build in Brooklyn

Habitat for Humanity is known throughout the world for recruiting volunteers to build homes for low-income people. However, this model faces challenges in an urban setting like Brooklyn, where open land is scarce and expensive.

With a major grant from the Brooklyn Community Foundation and its assistance with government agencies, Habitat NYC crafted a multi-family model and now has become the largest producer of Habitat homes in the Northeast; it is also the first one to acquire government–owned land.

Habitat has recently constructed an unprecedented project: a LEED-certified 41 unit condominium in Bedford Stuyvesant to provide affordable, green housing to low-income Brooklynites and 16 two and three bedroom condominiums on four different sites in central Brooklyn. Thousands of volunteers--including the project's residents-- have helped make these projects possible.

The Brooklyn Community Foundation Community Development Fund supports programs which encourage thoughtful planning so that Brooklyn neighborhoods have the stability they need to succeed.

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Meet a Grantee

Preventing Learning Loss Year-Round

On a September afternoon, Ian Foster Jones sits behind a piano at the Brooklyn Friends School, a private school in downtown Brooklyn. The group of tiny children who stand rapt before him is a picture of New York’s melting pot—different classes, races, and ethnic backgrounds.