Major Boro Park Housing Project Completed After Over 20 Years

by Meir Sternhill

The most significant affordable housing development project in Boro Park in decades finally had its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday after over 20 years of stops and starts through mayoral administrations.

The Culver El Project, spearheaded by Agudath Israel, is located on 37th Street between 12th and 14th Avenues and will have 68 housing units when completed. The first stage of 36 apartments was finished, and some people have received their keys already.

State Senator Simcha Felder, who envisioned the empty lot in 2002 as a potential for housing, noted that housing is the top issue he gets asked about. He mentioned a story of his mother, who passed away a month ago, on how much housing means to people.

“She never complained,” Felder said. “I said to her once, ‘If you had to complain, what is the one thing that aggravated you during your life?’ And she said, ‘Moving from apartment to apartment, and not having a permanent place to live.’ I say if that was the only thing that my mother would complain about, what a wonderful, wonderful thing for you to be able to enable families to have a permanent place to live and to enjoy.”

Boro Park’s population has grown by double digits in recent years, but the number of available houses has not kept up nearly enough. The Culver Estates site, formerly a right-of-way station for a discontinued railway, was rezoned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to allow for residential housing, with much of it designated for affordable housing.

The Southern Brooklyn Community Organization, or SBCO, a division of Agudath Israel of America, designed the property to fit the specific needs of the heimishe community. There are 17 four-story buildings, one unit per floor, for a total of 68 apartments. These were raffled off, with most of the units packaged for affordable housing and some to be handicapped accessible.

Other speakers at the ceremony were Rabbi Avrohom Jaffe, the CEO and executive director of SBCO; Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president; Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Agudah’s director of New York government relations; Rabbi Shimon Ostreicher of the Belzer mosdos; and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a former city councilman representing the area.

Photo credit: Agudath Israel of America/ Moshe Gershbaum