Providence House, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provides transitional and supportive housing for women and families, presented a proposal on July 16 to rezone and merge three adjacent properties at 699'03 Lexington Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant so the organization can construct a six-story, roughly 36,000-square-foot facility with approximately 85 transitional shelter units targeted to women returning from incarceration or homelessness.

The applicant, Providence House, described the program as a small-scale, trauma-informed residential program designed to provide private rooms, small cohorts, wraparound supportive services and office space for staff. Executive Director Danielle Pagnata said Providence House operates nine residences (eight in Brooklyn), has a long local history (founded in 1979) and reported a non-recidivism rate above 97% for its womend justice program. The organization said it intends to underwrite the project through a 30-year contract with the Department of Homeless Services and that the site has been used by Providence House for program and administrative purposes for decades.

Architects described a plan that merges three tax lots, extends the adjacent R6A district east about 100 feet to encompass Providence Housexisting holdings and places residential sleeping floors above staff offices and service spaces. The applicant said the proposed building is consistent with the walk-up character found on side streets and argued the rezoning would reflect existing built conditions and preserve the neighborhood scale. Designers also said they engaged residents and program alumni in the planning and that each resident would have a private room.

Community testimony included support from local land-use and precinct representatives who said Providence House has been a responsible operator and that the project would meet a gap in shelter options specifically for women returning from incarceration and homelessness. The applicant said it would bid construction to qualified contractors with outreach to local firms and that an environmental review includes a restrictive declaration tied to the state's potential historic preservation scheduling to add additional monitoring of construction impacts.

Panel members questioned whether the project could have been built before the Bed-Stuy rezoning changes and whether the City of Yes zoning deductions (introduced in zoning changes citywide) can be applied to community facilities with sleeping accommodations; the applicant said the project would not likely have fit under the prior rules at the same scale and expressed that clarifying zoning rules for community facilities would be helpful. No formal action was taken; the borough president will submit a recommendation to the City Planning Commission under ULURP. Written comment is open through July 18, 2025.