New Settlement Apartments Raises $12,500 for Haiti

(Photo courtesy of New Settlement Apartments)

Last Friday, more than 600 children, teens and adults walked along the Grand Concourse to raise money for the recovery effort in Haiti following January's catastrophic earthquake.

Starting at the Grand Concourse at 172nd Street, the walkers marched south until they reached the steps of the Bronx County Counthouse, where they were met by Bronx BP Ruden Diaz, Jr., Deputy BP Aurelia Greene and Assemblymember Vanessa Gibson.

In the weeks leading up to the walk, children in New Settlement's after school programs and teens and young adults in its youth development programs learned about Haiti, created banners and t-shirts, and collected donations. In all, $12,500 was raised. The money is going to Partners in Health, a charity which has been active in Haiti for the past 20 years.

Based in Mount Eden, New Settlement Apartments is a project of the Settlement Housing Fund. The organization is currently building a school, community center and swimming pool on Jerome Avenue.

School and Community Center Being Built in Mt. Eden

In what was described by many as “a great day in the Bronx,” the Settlement Housing Fund, a non-profit organization, began construction on its New Settlement Community Campus in the Mt. Eden neighborhood. Located on Jerome Avenue between West 172nd Street and Globe Place, the site will include a pre-K – 12th grade public school, community center, and a state-of-the-art indoor swimming facility.

Pricilla Henegen, a 19-year resident of the neighborhood, who plans to send her grand niece to the school, could not contain her excitement for the new complex. “I wish they had it when I moved in,” she said.

The project is expected to be completed by 2012 and create over 1,000 new seats for students in a neighborhood characterized by overcrowded schools. The Department of Education will own the school, but New Settlement Apartments (located adjacent to the site and a project of the Settlement Housing Fund) will provide facilities management for both the school and community center. Total development costs for the school, center, and pool are estimated to be $83 million.

New Settlement Apartments' executive director, Jack Doyle, credits the collaboration of several government and private funding sources for the realization of the complex in a community that has been the scene of many rehabilitation efforts on the part of the organization over the past twenty years. Since 1987 the Settlement Housing Fund has been running affordable housing buildings and offering youth and parental development programs to the community.

“The future of many children and generations of children to come rests in large part on our success,” Doyle said. “We have no choice but to be successful.”

Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott attended the groundbreaking ceremony and both echoed praise for the organization and its vision. Ravitch called the school and community center the perfect combination that he hopes to see repeated. “[The Settlement Housing Fund] always manages to rise at a problem with a solution,” Ravich said. “They have made life better for tens of thousands of citizens.”

Top photo: Deputy Borough President Aurelia Greene (left); Jack Doyle, New Settlement Apartments executive director (second from left); Councilmember Maria Baez (center). Bottom photo: Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch