Improving Lives For Seniors
On November 2, NYCHA, the Hudson Guild, and the Department for the Aging (DFTA) held a special a sneak-peek of construction progress underway at the Fulton Houses Community Center.
On November 2, NYCHA, the Hudson Guild, and the Department for the Aging (DFTA) held a special a sneak-peek of construction progress underway at the Fulton Houses Community Center.
Fulton Houses Community Center is home to a longstanding neighborhood resource, a senior center that provides programs for residents of Fulton Houses and the greater Chelsea community. Operated by Hudson Guild in partnership with the DFTA, the Center had not been renovated since it opened in 1965.
Guests wore hard hats as they toured the site, walking through metal beams and on concrete floors as construction workers paused work for the event. When the Center is finished it will feature a wider, easier to navigate entrance, an updated auditorium with improved sound and lighting, upgraded and ADA-Compliant bathrooms throughout, a new, modernized kitchen, plus a separate teaching kitchen for activities, and much more.
Scheduled to reopen in 2019, the Center will serve 200 seniors daily, offer 65 weekly activities, and provide 42,000 meals a year. It will also offer the community a modern, inviting space for meetings and celebrations, youth activities, and the potential for new programs of all kinds.
At the event, Fulton Houses Resident Association President Miguel Acevedo spoke about how important the Center is to the community, “especially for my vulnerable seniors who come to this place daily, not only to get fed, but to have conversation. Our seniors are some of the loneliest people in New York, but they feel comfortable coming here. They have conversations, they play dominoes, they play pool, everything they need is done here and it’s been done for 50 plus years. We at the tenant association appreciate the Hudson Guild and are looking forward to the future…NextGeneration is truly next generation— without NYCHA and our partners it doesn’t happen.”
Funding for the Center’s renovation was provided by NYCHA, Congressman Jerry Nadler, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Council Member Corey Johnson, and several individual donors.