The Fulton Correctional Facility was shuttered in 2011 and transformed into transitional housing for formerly incarcerated men. The program is now helping them find jobs, permanent homes, and second chances.<\/p>\n
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Dexter Joseph, a graduate of a workforce development program at the former Fulton Correctional Facility in the Bronx, at the building on Friday. \u201cA lot of brothers here [are] trying to change their lives,\u201d he said. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits) <\/p>\n
Two years ago, Peter Soto was sleeping on the bench in the park across the street.<\/p>\n
In October, Angel Fabian was dropped off at a gas station with just his debit card and no phone.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Dexter Joseph went from prison straight to the city\u2019s homeless intake shelter.<\/p>\n
All three men were released from New York State prisons after years of incarceration. Now they\u2019re making a former prison in the Bronx their temporary home as they rebuild their lives.<\/p>\n
The program, run by the city\u2019s Department of Social Services and Osbourne Association out of the remodeled Fulton Correctional Facility, provides temporary housing for formerly incarcerated homeless men over 40 reentering society\u2014helping them find jobs, permanant homes, and second chances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It seeks to fill a gap for people leaving prison\u2014mostly Black and Latino men\u2014who face significant discrimination in the housing and job markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere is different because a lot of brothers here [are] trying to change their lives. They\u2019ve been through the fire, and they\u2019re here to make a change,\u201d said Joseph.<\/p>\n
The Fulton Correctional Facility was shuttered<\/a> in 2011 after 36 years of operation, as the state\u2019s prison population continued a long decline.<\/p>\n Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at the time that \u201can incarceration program is not an employment program,\u201d referring to opposition to the state\u2019s decision to close several prisons<\/a>, which are major job sources in some regions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fifteen years later, the Department of Social Services runs a jobs program out of the same building that once housed up to 900<\/a> inmates.<\/p>\n After it sat empty for years, officials launched a $6.5 million effort <\/a>to redevelop the building into a reentry hub for people leaving prison in 2015. In 2024, it opened as transitional housing and on Friday, 20 residents graduated from the center\u2019s workforce development program.<\/p>\n Barred from certain types of employment, people leaving prison struggle to earn a paycheck to afford rent. And when they do seek apartments, they are sometimes discriminated against<\/a> because of their criminal histories.<\/p>\n As a result, many people leaving prison go from living in one government facility to another: city shelters.<\/p>\n In spite of the challenges, Fabian said that his life changed when he decided he wanted better for himself. The help he needed was out there, he said. It was just a matter of finding it. \u201cWe know how this game go. Some want it, some don\u2019t,\u201d said Fabian.<\/p>\n Joseph, who found the program through a parole officer, said he was horrified by the congregate shelters he lived in right after he came home.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the worst,\u201d he said, describing the roaches and filth at Bellevue, which the city has since shuttered<\/a>. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates have long called for better planning for people leaving the carceral system, but there aren\u2019t enough housing resources to go around in an ever-expensive city. A report<\/a> from the Coalition for the Homeless found that in 2024, 43 percent of people discharged from state prisons ended up in the shelter system.<\/p>\n The men at Fulton have different dreams. But they all start with one foundation: securing permanent housing.<\/p>\n Soto grew up in the Bronx neighborhood around Fulton. When he returned home, he bought from some of the same drug dealers he used to back in the day, and ended up sleeping on a park bench right across from the former correctional facility.<\/p>\n \u201cEven after I left prison I was still imprisoned,\u201d he said. Now housed, he hopes to \u201cget clean, build a foundation, gain confidence, move forward into a normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n For Joseph, his dream is to own a small business cooking Caribbean food. \u201cI love cooking so it\u2019s like therapy for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The seven-story building these men call home has lived three or four lives. It was an Episcopal Church in the early 20th century, a synagogue by the 1920s, a nursing home and drug treatment center in the 1950s.<\/p>\n Fabian said that it was weird to think about the building as a former prison, but that it was now unrecognizable. \u201cYou would never know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It has been transformed from cells to 140 supportive housing beds for older adult men. The rooms range from singles to four beds, with common spaces, computer labs, a library, and shared bathrooms.<\/p>\n \u201cEven places can have redemption and have a new chapter,\u201d said Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton.<\/p>\n Since the facility\u2019s opening in May 2024, 143 formerly incarcerated men passed through Fulton and were placed in permanent housing after, according to the Department of Social Services.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are getting placements and that\u2019s not nothing in our system,\u201d said Dalton.<\/p>\n During their stays at the facility, which vary based on their needs and ability to secure housing, the men can access job training, counseling, medical services and other resources on site.<\/p>\n Fabian secured a job as a maintenance supervisor at a Brooklyn shelter after a six-week internship. \u201cMy mother is so happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last week, Fabian got a shopping letter from the city which allows him to start apartment-hunting with a CityFHEPS voucher\u2014the most common way for someone to find permanent housing from a shelter. With the program, Fabian would pay 30 percent of his income while the city picked up the rest of the rent.<\/p>\n But using those vouchers can be challenging. While it\u2019s against the law for landlords to reject a tenant because they pay with a voucher,\u00a0discrimination is common. Buildings that rent to those with the subsidies are predominately concentrated in the\u00a0Bronx<\/a>, which would be a lengthy commute to his job at a Brooklyn shelter.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Fabian has faith that he can rebuild his life, a change he credits to his mindset and the help he found with the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said it was \u201ca platform that I can transition into the man that I am today, a positive environment filled with quiet, discreet hope.\u201d<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Fulton](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
Angel Fabian in the room he shares with another resident at the transitional housing facility. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\nGraduates and officials gathered for a group photo with Erin Dalton, commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services, during a ceremony in the Bronx Friday morning. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\nThe seven-story building was once an Episcopal Church, a nursing home and drug treatment center, and later, a state prison. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\nErin Dalton, commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services, addressing graduates and attendees. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits)<\/p>\n