Inside Riverdale area's near-complete men's rehousing center

The men’s shelter on West 262nd Street and Broadway, or the Van Cortlandt Rapid Rehousing Center, is near completion and expected to open Sept. 1.

Up to 130 men will stay at the shelter, where staff will provide job training, life skills development and educational support, among other services, according to Westhab, a Westchester and New York City-based nonprofit that owns and runs the site. Westhab President and CEO Richard Nightingale said the custom-made shelter will serve as transitional housing.

“Our approach to shelter is, ‘This isn’t forever,’” Nightingale said. “Get up and look for work, get up and look for housing … We have all the resources here to support you, but we don’t just sit around.”

Reducing homelessness starts with a dignified shelter system, Nightingale said. The idea that a shelter is “good enough for homeless people,” isn’t right, he said, and those experiencing homelessness are neighbors and human beings.

At the entryway, residents pass through a metal detector and run their belongings through an X-ray conveyor belt. There will be 24-hour security inside the building, Nightingale said. If residents are congregating outside, they will be asked to clear, he said, assuaging a worry Riverdale community members had voiced in the past.

On the first floor, along with administrative offices, is a dining room that overlooks Van Cortlandt Park, where Nightingale said kitchen staff will serve three meals a day. On the second, there is a recreation room with foosball, air hockey and ping-pong tables. There will also be a library and computer room, and several other multipurpose rooms.

Floors three through six are for bedrooms. Depending on the size of the unit, there are three or five twin beds, each with their own locked storage cabinet and dividing privacy wall. On the roof is an outdoor terrace, decorated with vibrant greenery and picnic tables.

The shelter mirrors the design of any other modern residential building — an intentional detail, Nightingale said, achieved with help from New York City-based firm RKTB Architects. In some rooms, teal walls meet cool gray molding, while others are a crisp white, all brightened by streams of light flowing in through floor-to-ceiling windows. All the furniture — from dark-wood desks to white dining tables — is new, Westhab said.

There used to be a belief when designing shelters that a developer shouldn’t make it too nice, or people won’t want to leave, Nightingale said. But he believes that’s not true.

“The reality is, the better environment you create, the better culture you run in your building, the more it motivates people to do the things they need to do,” he said.

Nightingale also pointed out a misconception about New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. The leading cause is that rent is too high for working people, he said, not substance abuse or mental health issues.

According to advocacy organization Coalition for the Homeless, an estimated 96,500 people slept in city shelters in May, and thousands more in unsheltered public spaces. Sixty five percent of those in shelters were families, including 30,955 children, the coalition said.

The shelter was proposed five years ago, originally intended for development by another nonprofit, the African American Planning Commission, until Westhab bought the property in 2023. All the while, Riverdale community members have consistently raised concerns about public safety.

Nightingale believes the shelter will not lead to any increase in crime. In an average Westhab shelter, half of the residents are employed and just unable to keep up with the cost of living, Nightingale said. He expects the Van Cortlandt Rapid Rehousing Center to be the same.

Men with severe mental illnesses — defined by the city as a depression, schizophrenia or bipolar diagnosis that substantially interferes with major life activities — would go to a specialized mental health shelter, not Westhab’s, Nightingale said.

On accepting residents with serious criminal records, Nightingale said placements are up to the city.

A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Social Services told The Press the intake process is focused on determining what facility is suited to meet the needs of the individual, and there is not a unique process for someone with a criminal record.

The spokesperson said the department provides shelter to anyone, in accordance with the city’s right to shelter mandate. The vast majority of clients are those “struggling to get by in an expensive city and have nowhere else to turn,” the spokesperson said.

The department spokesperson also said criminality and homelessness should not be conflated.

Once open, Westhab will put together a community advisory board, which is a group of residents and neighborhood leaders who provide feedback on the shelter.