WHO WE ARE
Our mission is to make the Bronx a more beautiful, equitable and economically vibrant place to live and raise a family.
WHEDco was founded in 1991 with the vision of restoring the South Bronx to the beautiful, bustling place it once was for upwardly mobile immigrant families. During the dark days of the 1970s, scores of magnificent buildings were boarded up, left to burn or simply demolished, and hospitals, firehouses and schools were shuttered as a result of the city’s ill-conceived economic policies.
To fulfill our vision of renewal, WHEDco’s first project was the renovation of the long-abandoned Morrisania Hospital complex in order to provide low-income families with affordable homes and interconnected, high-quality solutions to the obstacles they face. In partnership with neighborhood leaders, WHEDco developed that ravaged site into the award-winning Urban Horizons Economic Development Center. We also catalyzed the construction next door of a public school, the Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magnet School (PS/MS 218), which serves the residents of Urban Horizons and the surrounding community.
Our second development, Intervale Green, expanded our housing and community dvelopment work into the Crotona East neighborhood made famous by President Jimmy Carter's visit. This building stands on a once vacant lot, and is the nation's largest Energy Star-certified affordable housing development. WHEDco's work in this neighborhood also includes commercial revitalization to make the neighborhood safer and more vibrant.
WHEDco now looks ahead to its third South Bronx housing development, Bronx Commons, which will break ground in Melrose in 2014. Bronx Commons will further our efforts to restore pride of place in the Bronx.
WHERE WE WORK
WHEDco works in the nation’s poorest Congressional District, CD 16 of the South Bronx, where 38% of all residents and 49% of children live in poverty.
Our two existing housing developments, Urban Horizons and Intervale Green, and our newest project, Bronx Commons, breaking ground in 2014, form "THE GREEN TRIANGLE."
