Cuomo Proposes $1.4B for Housing and Healthcare in Central Brooklyn
(DNAINFO) Rachel Holliday Smith | March 9, 2017 — Funding for more than 3,000 units of housing, a new ambulatory care network and a slew of programs to fight poverty are in the works for Central Brooklyn, according to a health-focused initiative outlined by the governor Thursday.
The $1.4 billion “Vital Brooklyn” effort aims to fight “entrenched pockets of poverty” in the area, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday, earmarking money for affordable housing, better access to healthcare and more farmers markets, anti-violence programming and recreation space in parts of Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, East Flatbush, Brownsville and East New York.
“What is the area in this state that has the greatest social need? If you look at unemployment rates, food stamps, physical inactivity, number of murders, one of the greatest areas of need in the entire state is Central Brooklyn. And it’s not even close,” the governor said at the announcement at Medgar Evers College.
To help improve those benchmarks, Cuomo hopes to pour $1.4 billion into the community, the largest chunk of which — a $700 million capital investment — will be used for “community-based health care,” including a 36-site ambulatory care network.
An additional $563 million, half of the total expected cost of “Vital Brooklyn,” will go toward building more than 3,000 units of housing on six state-owned sites in the area. The precise locations of the new housing, as well as the 36 ambulatory care sites, were not revealed at Thursday’s announcement; an inquiry to the governor’s office was not returned.