idealist.org

... bringing people from crisis to community.

Brooklyn Community Housing and Services, Inc. (BCHS) is committed to ending homelessness in Brooklyn and empowering all the residents of Fort Greene and the surrounding neighborhoods - our home community. We provide safe, clean supportive housing each year for nearly 700 women, children and men who had been homeless, and help them learn how to live productively and independently, with dignity, and with hope. BCHS has helped thousands who were in crisis achieve independence during the last 28 years and we are ready to help thousands more in the future, until the day that homelessness no longer exists, and until the day that our local communities are as socially rich and as economically vital as possible.

ORGANIZATION HISTORY
BCHS was founded in 1979 by area clergy, in response to the Carter Administration’s call for the creation of community-based programs for the mentally ill, and immediately established one of the first Scattered-Site apartment programs for mentally ill adults in New York State. In 1991, BCHS opened Brooklyn Gardens for mothers with children, adults with psychiatric histories, and low-income adults—this was the first housing program in the nation to serve such a blended population in this way. In 1993 Brooklyn Gardens was given the FannieMae Foundation Maxwell Award for Excellence in low-income housing development and in 1996 the agency was honored by the New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Program for “outstanding contributions” in innovative housing for the homeless. Also in 1996, the agency established Working Community, a comprehensive vocational training program for all residents, and in 1998 began Bridge to Home, providing short term rental assistance to homeless adults. In 2004, Arbor Inn, the short-term housing program for mothers with children in Brooklyn Gardens, was the 3rd highest ranked program in the City by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), out of 134 such programs.