New UWS Affordable Housing Plan Nixed By Developer Due to Existing Rent-Stabilized Units

The Saint Agnes Residence on West 74th Street between Broadway and West End. Photo by Gus Saltonstall.

By Gus Saltonstall

At the end of February, West Side Rag first reported that the Sisters of Charity Housing Development Corporation was planning to transform the Saint Agnes Residence building at 237 West 74th Street, between West End Avenue and Broadway, into 50 affordable and supportive units.

The proposal, which the Sisters of Charity presented to Community Board 7 on February 18, would have turned the 90 existing Single Room Occupancy (SRO) and short-term rental units for working women that already exist within the building into 50 studio apartments for low-income individuals and formerly homeless adults.

WSR can now report that the plan is no longer moving forward, as confirmed in an email to the Rag by Matthew Janeczko, the CEO and President of the Sisters of Charity Housing & Affiliates.

“Based on its due diligence, Sisters of Charity Housing determined that St. Agnes Residence was rent stabilized housing,” Janeczko wrote. “Based on this, we have decided to halt our development plans. We look forward to working with ownership, the City, and local stakeholders to ensure that this property remains rent stabilized into the future and ensures the current tenants can remain in place.”

When the Sisters of Charity presented the redevelopment proposal in February, which was planned to be completed in 2030, multiple members of the CB7 Housing and Preservation Committee brought up concerns about the current residents and whether every tenant would leave at the end of their lease, especially if the units were already rent-stabilized.

“This is at its core a displacement issue. St. Agnes is more than just a building,” a woman who currently lives at the Saint Agnes Residence said during a CB7 meeting in April about the issue. “It’s the proposed casualty of a future project. If you solve one policy problem by displacing the women who already live in a functioning home, you aren’t preserving housing. You are destroying current housing to build something new.”

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