Crown Heights Housing Facility Opens For Psychiatric Patients

CROWN HEIGHTS— A new facility in Crown Heights will give New Yorkers leaving psychiatric hospitals a private room, around-the-clock care and help finding permanent housing, city officials announced Tuesday.

The Bridge to Home facility, located at the former Hotel Mirage at 1464 Atlantic Ave. in Crown Heights, will provide private rooms and on-site medical, behavioral health and housing services for up to 50 New Yorkers.

Guests can stay for up to 12 months while receiving medical and behavioral health care and working with staff to secure permanent supportive housing.

The Brooklyn site near NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull will provide psychiatric care, therapy, substance use treatment, social services, housing assistance and 24-hour support.

The program gives patients an option between leaving a hospital and moving directly into permanent housing, rather than entering a shelter or returning to the street.

The Brooklyn opening doubles the program's capacity to about 100 people citywide.

Who Can Stay At Bridge To Home?

The program serves adults who receive behavioral health care from NYC Health + Hospitals, have a serious mental illness, have experienced chronic housing instability and receive a referral from a health system provider.

Participants also must agree to take part in the program.

At Woodhull, doctors said the new facility will allow hospital staff to continue working with patients after they leave inpatient care.

“Many of them cite homelessness as the number one reason for their relapse and decompensation,” Rajvee Vora, chief of psychiatry at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, said.

How Has The Program Worked In Manhattan?

The first Bridge to Home facility opened in Midtown Manhattan in September 2025.

More than 87 percent of current guests attend clinical visits at least once a week, and about two-thirds have completed housing applications, according to NYC Health + Hospitals.

Four guests have been matched with permanent housing, and three have moved into permanent supportive housing.

The average stay among guests who have moved into permanent supportive housing has been about seven months, according to the health system.

The City launched the program to address a gap between inpatient psychiatric care and permanent housing.

NYC Health + Hospitals expects the model to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and hospital stays while helping patients remain connected to treatment after leaving the hospital.

“When patients with serious mental illness have a stable place to go after they leave our hospitals, we now have the opportunity to create a lasting change in the course of their lives,” Ted Long, chief medical officer for clinical services and population health at NYC Health + Hospitals, said.

The administration plans to expand Bridge to Home again with a third location in early 2027, according to a city planning document.