At the invitation of the Cooper Square Committee, we headed over to 222 East 13th St. (near 3rd Avenue) yesterday for a celebration. It was the groundbreaking for a project many years in the making — The Bea Arthur Residence for homeless LGBT youth.
Arthur, the Golden Girls star, left $300,000 to the Ali Forney Center and the City Council and Manhattan Borough President’s office added $3.3 million to make the project possible. When completed, the facility will serve as an 18-bed shelter.
The Forney Center, which advocates for LGBT youth, and the LES-based Cooper Square Committee will partner to rehabilitate the former city-owned building. The project will hopefully be finished by the end of next year.
Builders-R-Us Construction Corp. is the general contractor. An addition to the back of the building will provide over 1,000 sq. ft. of space for three 3-bedroom apartments. The Ali Forney Center’s staff will work out of the basement, providing services to residents.
On hand for yesterday’s event were City Council member Rosie Mendez, City Council member Corey Johnson and State Sen. Bead Hoylman.
