The Fund and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), in partnership with the Design Trust for Public Space, Center for Justice Innovation and NYCHA residents are collaborating to create and activate community-designed green space at four NYCHA public housing developments, home to over  14,000 residents in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

In 2022, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust announced a grant of $3.2 million for Green Space Connections. Led by the Fund for Public Housing in collaboration with NYCHA’s Asset & Capital Management Division, and managed by The Design Trust for Public Space, the program will use the Connected Communities' participatory design process to create and activate green space at four NYCHA public housing developments over the next three years.

Green Space Connections features three main program elements – Participatory Design Process, Physical Transformation, and Programming for Sustainability – to ensure that the spaces have a direct, positive impact on the health, well‐being, resiliency, safety, and overall quality of life of 14,000 NYCHA residents in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

THE PROJECT TEAM

Green Space Connections is supported by a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The project is being spearheaded by the Public Housing Community Fund and NYCHA in partnership with the Design Trust for Public Space at four NYCHA developments: Marlboro Houses and Roosevelt Houses in Brooklyn and Castle Hill Houses and Patterson Houses in the Bronx.

Project development and programming is supported by our Green Space Partner: the Center for Justice Innovation.

NYCHA’s Connected Communities initiative is focused on activating and improving open space, through efforts to enhance physical and social connections between residents and their communities. 1 out of every 16 New York City residents live in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments. Public housing is an integral part of the city’s landscape. Better public space in these communities contributes to a more connected, sustainable, and green future for all New Yorkers. 

In 2022, the Fund and NYCHA successfully completed a Connected Communities pilot project at Pomonok Houses, Queens, transforming a basketball court and BBQ area for residents. Green Space Connections leverages the success and impact of this Connected Communities pilot initiative – a groundbreaking outcome of a previous Helmsley grant – and builds upon that to create a community‐facing replication strategy for scalability and a communications roadmap for execution.