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The senior center is getting new life after a 25-year closure, and will be named after a longtime tenant association president who’s held the role for 33 years and has been “feeding the seniors every day like clockwork.”
Walter McNeill, the tenant association president and 52-year resident of Edenwald Houses in the Eastchester neighborhood in the Bronx, has a reputation for distributing food to seniors in his community and connecting them to classes and programs they say they’re looking for.
He’s so well-known in the development that even Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems to view him as competition.
“The only reason I’m standing before you as the mayor is because Walter did not run for mayor,” Mamdani quipped on Thursday, when he joined other city officials to cut the ribbon for a new senior center on the public housing campus. “Thank you, Walter, for letting me have a shot,” the mayor said.
The space, which has been shuttered and used as storage space for over 25 years, is now recently renovated and renamed in McNeill’s honor, a recognition of his immense presence in the community.
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced the reopening Thursday of three community centers at Edenwald Houses, the largest public housing development in the Bronx and third-largest in the city.
They include the renovated senior center, a community center and a daycare. The upgraded sites will offer programming that neighbors of all ages can use, officials said, with event spaces, computer labs, classrooms, dance rooms, and even a commercial kitchen.
The renovations were completed as part of the city’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, in which NYCHA partners with private management companies to take on day-to-day operations of developments, while the housing authority continues to own the buildings and land.
While the program has drawn protests from NYCHA residents across the city who oppose the involvement of private companies in public housing (and have criticized Mamdani’s support for PACT), others welcome the partnerships as a much needed source of money for repairs.
Under PACT, NYCHA qualifies for a higher federal subsidy, and the private partners agree to fund extensive repairs that typically include fully renovated apartments, kitchens and common areas along with new elevators, and upgraded building pipe and heating systems.
The program has so far brought 170 NYCHA campuses into phases of predevelopment, construction or completed renovations, and represents nearly $17 billion in capital repairs, officials say.
In the case of Edenwald Houses, private management partners Camber Property Group, Henge Development, and Stuart Alexander and Associates struck a $783 million deal with NYCHA to fully modernize all the apartments and common areas on the campus, including upgrades to heating and cooling, and electrical and mechanical systems. About $8.1 million of that sum went into the new community centers, according to the mayor.
The private partners officially took on operations at Edenwald Houses in 2021, and began renovations around 2023. The development’s community center, separate from the newly-renovated senior center, has remained open since then as private partners scheduled and completed renovations around its programming and services.
But operations at the development’s senior center ceased decades ago, as the housing authority began scaling back the use of such spaces in response to dwindling federal funding. It’s been used as a storage facility for the campus ever since, holding items like extra light fixtures, doors and furniture.
The renovated community centers will serve nearly 5,000 residents across 2,035 of Edenwald Houses’ apartments. Other improvements, as outlined in the private partners’ plans for the development, include lead paint removal, mold remediation, free campus-wide WiFi, and landscaping and outdoor amenities like basketball courts, planters, and dog parks.
“The residents of Edenwald Houses, led by Mr. McNeill, have spent years fighting for the homes and community space they deserve,” the mayor said.
McNeill’s son, Omar, told City Limits he drove with his wife and young children for nearly seven hours to attend the ceremony, which he described as “a beautiful experience,” and “a family affair.”
“It wouldn’t matter if it was 12 hours, we wouldn’t miss this,” he told City Limits. “I talk to my father throughout the week, and he’s feeding the seniors every day like clockwork, and he’s been doing it for years.”
“My father has worked hard, and he’s very passionate about the people in the community,” Omar added, “and we’re so proud to see that all of his hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.”
About 95 percent of planned renovations at the development are now complete, according to Leila Bozorg, the city’s deputy housing mayor. The developers are still waiting on final paperwork and clearances from Con Edison, and anticipates the center to be fully operational by early 2027. In the meantime, residents can use the facility to hold less formal services, like food pantries.
“These renovated centers will give residents places to gather, access services and build community, while honoring a leader who has dedicated his life to fighting for his neighbors,” Mayor Mamdani added.
McNeill, the center’s namesake, took on the role of the development’s tenant association president 33 years ago, and described the improvements to his apartment, along with the new facilities, as “sheer beauty.”
“I’m grateful and very humbled to have that senior center named after me, but I didn’t do it alone,” he told the crowd.
He addressed the tenant association board members, and specifically acknowledged their efforts over the years to help the most vulnerable members of their communities through drug epidemics and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had people with me, and it was a long fight, but it was worth it,” McNeill said.
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