City officials joined Jewish Home Lifecare representatives at the groundbreaking of a $16 million apartment building for low-income seniors in Kingsbridge on Monday, May 19.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg/ Webb Avenue Senior Residence, with 71 one-bedroom apartments accessible for the physically disabled, will be constructed on the parking lot behind their Bronx campus at West Kingsbridge Road and Webb Avenue.

“We are thrilled to be converting a parking lot into a humane use,” said Audrey Weiner, the not-for-profit organization’s president and CEO. She was joined by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and representatives from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the city Department for the Aging, and Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo’s office.

“We have a nursing home and senior care center here, so that in five to 10 years from now, the seniors will transition from the building to here,” Weiner said. “It’s a continuum of care, so that people with supportive services can keep living independently for as long as possible.”

The apartment building will be Jewish Home Lifecare’s third HUD Section 202 affordable housing development in the Bronx. Section 202 provides housing grants for buildings serving low-income seniors who are at least 62 years old.  For this year, the maximum incomes allowed were $24,800 for one person and $28,350 for two people. But a majority of residents have incomes between $10,000 and $15,000, said Ken Sherman, senior vice president of the organization’s Bronx division.

Nationwide and citywide there is a crisis for housing for low-income seniors. There are 3.5 million seniors living below the poverty line and there are 10 seniors for every waitlist spot for HUD housing, Weiner said.

Lucky seniors will be chosen in a lottery closer to the completion date, in about 18 to 20 months, according to Weiner. Applications will be available about three months before it opens, and Weiner said her organization will put ads in local newspapers telling seniors how to apply.

HUD provided a $12 million interest-free capital advance to Jewish Home Lifecare, which will own the building after 40 years as long as the building serves very low income seniors for that time. The organization, founded in 1848, also received $1.7 million from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which gives grants to nonprofits for the poor, especially Jewish seniors; $500,000 from the Bronx borough president’s office, and Jewish Home Lifecare put up $1.3 million of its own money.

This comes on the heels of Jewish Home’s $10 million renovation of the 295-unit middle-income Mitchell-Llama Kittay House, completed in February.

“We have to ensure that seniors have quality housing,” Carrion said, “so they can live with dignity and respect.”