2023 Annual Report

Jerome Michael, 51, spent five years being passed from shelter to shelter. As a gay male survivor of domestic violence who suffers from severe depression, he struggled to live safely, until he found Henry Street’s Third Street Supportive Housing Residence.

Jerome had signs of mental illness from an early age, but he refused to seek help. Thirteen years ago, he lost his mother, with whom he was very close, and his depression became more pronounced. Then, he became involved with someone who became abusive when Jerome objected to his drug use. The abuse intensified until Jerome was able to escape. At times, he slept in parks and hotels because there were so few safe places for a single man to stay.

In early 2021, after a nearly three-year stay in a shelter, a worker told Jerome his time was up. But, she gave him a referral to Henry Street. “God was on my side that the place they showed me was secure and for people with mental issues,” he says of Henry Street’s Third Street Supportive Housing Residence. He moved in at the height of the pandemic.

Henry Street’s supportive housing residence comprises 52 studio apartments for single adults. Counseling is provided onsite, along with recreational activities like bingo, trivia, and movie nights. Jerome has also made friends in the building.

Jerome Michael has found a permanent home at the Third Street Supportive Housing Residence. Photos: Jeremy Weine

“I love the apartment so much,” he says of his light- and plant-filled space. “The staff call just to say hi. Then, they say that nothing’s wrong. Because when I answer the phone, I worry that I’m going wake up one day and it’s all going to be gone….They offer every single thing here. It’s absolutely amazing.”

Nicole Satchell sums up her senior year with one word: bittersweet. A student at Orchard Collegiate Academy (OCA) on the Lower East Side, the 18-year-old finds solace in the community she has built there. “When I'm here at school, I feel happy. I have so many people that really support me and are there for me,” she says.

However, when Nicole began ninth grade during the pandemic, she wasn’t sure how she was going to get through high school. Being stuck in the house left her feeling isolated and numb. Nicole met Joelle Diaz, director of Henry Street Settlement’s community school partnership at OCA, in a weekly virtual stress-management group for students. For Joelle, letting Nicole give up on school was not an option.

Joelle helped Nicole articulate her emotions and taught her coping skills, making uncomfortable emotions more tolerable. Nicole also joined the Settlement’s Expanded Horizons College Access and Success program, found a part-time job through the Youth Opportunity Hub, and received additional mental health support from the School-Based Mental Health team. “Henry Street gave me an opportunity and saw the potential in me,” she says. “They see how much I'm worth.”

Community schools integrate community-based organizations into the fabric of public school life to address any barriers that interfere with students’ education. Since Henry Street partnered with OCA—at one point considered a failing school—graduation rates have soared from 40% to 90%, and enrollment has doubled.

Now, Nicole is letting herself experience both the sadness of leaving high school and the excitement of celebrating her accomplishments. “I never thought I was going to get to this moment. Walking across that stage after four years of working so hard...it’s like, ‘I did that.’”

When Zyrina Berrocales was in tenth grade, the dean of her high school placed her into a ceramics class. He had noticed that she was often upset and thought it would help calm her down. In fact, wrestling with a hunk of clay turned out to be cathartic, as Zyrina shaped bowls, vases, and a candleholder that she still has.

Zyrina, 39, grew up in foster care, where she faced a series of traumatic experiences. By the age of 21, she was working temp jobs to support herself. Working with her hands gave her a distraction from her thoughts and a chance to feel productive. Yet, her struggles with anxiety, ADHD, and dyslexia made the workplace challenging, and she spent several years living in transitional housing with her two daughters.

When Zyrina’s younger daughter began showing signs of distress in school, a teacher referred her to Henry Street’s School-Based Mental Health Clinic at P.S. 142 on the Lower East Side. Seeing the shift that therapy had brought about in her daughter’s behavior got Zyrina thinking about mental health care for herself. “I didn’t want to do it, but I had been silently struggling,” she says. Meeting with Henry Street therapist Sammie Woo, she has been able to open up about her struggles.

One day, Zyrina saw a flyer for the Settlement’s ceramics group—a weekly art therapy class offered through the CONNECT mental health program in collaboration with the Abrons Arts Center PATHS initiative—and jumped at the chance to sign up. She then joined Self-Expression Through Art, led by CONNECT director Shanell Kitt. The latter group raises topics for discussion while participants paint, to help them cope with stressors and process past trauma. In December 2023, the group displayed their paintings at Henry Street’s Dale Jones Burch Neighborhood Center. As visitors came up to her to ask questions about her paintings, Zyrina says, “I realized, I was telling my story through my artwork.”

Raised by his grandmother in the Jacob Riis Houses on the Lower East Side, Jason Batista, 37, had earned an associate degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and aspired to be a Nassau County police officer. 

But, in his early 20s, Jason experienced a tragic incident that sent his plans off course. On November 21, 2007, he was a passenger in a car whose driver, his good friend, had an altercation on the FDR. The other driver—an undercover police officer—shot Jason and killed his friend—both unarmed. 

The incident exacerbated Jason’s depression and anxiety. Fearful for his safety, he self-medicated to the point of alcohol and drug addiction. Several years later, he was pulled over with an unlicensed gun in his car. 

Taking a plea deal, Jason spent three years in prison. Released, but with few prospects for a job, he says, “That was a deep, dark time, but I kept pushing.”

Then, an ex-girlfriend told him about Henry Street’s employment services. Employment Coordinator Jay Koo helped Jason develop a resume, find a job in a hotel, and land several construction jobs. But, as he sought to use his college degree and advance in his career, his record got in the way. 

Employers in New York state can no longer ask whether a job applicant has been convicted of a felony. But, they can do a background check later in the hiring process. Jason lost dozens of promising job prospects.   

Jason Batista now works as an assistant conductor on Metro North’s Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven lines.

Jason had heard of the Certificate of Relief from Disabilities—a way to override his conviction in the job-search process. The certificate verifies the bearer’s good conduct and removes restrictions from certain jobs, but it wouldn’t be easy  to attain the certification. Jay Koo worked closely with Jason’s probation officer, and both submitted letters of advocacy to a judge, who issued the certificate.  

Jason applied for several jobs with the MTA, and one day he received an email offering him to take the assistant conductor test for Metro North. He passed the test and the background check, and now, after a five-month paid training program, he is an assistant conductor on three train lines, interacting with the public, operating doors, and lining up trains in the yard.

“If I hadn’t met up with Jay, I don’t think I would have this job,” Jason says. “Henry Street wrapped me in support.” 

In the Chinese city of Taishan, in the province of Guangdong, Hung Ying Chan-Eng’s family used ration cards to obtain food, clothing, and other supplies. Living conditions were cramped, and scarcity was the norm. When relations between the United States and China opened in 1979, Mrs. Chan and her husband began exploring the opportunity to leave. It took them 12 years.

“We had no expectations,” she says in Cantonese, with her case manager, Hong Kit Chen, translating.

Arriving with her husband at age 48, Mrs. Chan found a job as an inspector in a garment factory. Though she didn’t make much money, her income combined with her husband’s allowed them to live much more comfortably than they had in China.

When Mr. Chan became a citizen, the couple brought their son, daughter, and grandchildren to the United States, and they moved into the Vladeck Houses on the Lower East Side. There, Mrs. Chan’s life changed again. First, she learned that Henry Street Settlement provided older adults living in the complex—a naturally occurring retirement community, or NORC—with social and nursing services. Second, she discovered her artistic talent through classes at the Older Adult Center.

Now 81, she's under the caring eye of Hong, who helps her complete the necessary renewals for public housing, food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare and arranges apartment repairs. She spends time drawing every day at Henry Street’s Older Adult Center (steps from her apartment)—a habit that became an essential retreat when her husband died in 2019.

Mrs. Chan uses colored pencils and any paper she can find to explore her memories of China. Her delicate depictions of the mountains and streams of her hometown decorate the NORC office and are a source of comfort to her.

Mrs. Chan discovered her talent for drawing at Henry Street’s Older Adult Center.

When Zack Cruz was in elementary school, his mother signed him up for a musical theater class at Abrons Arts Center. At 11, he joined the Urban Youth Theater, which bridges the gap for low-income teens aspiring to careers in theater. Even though he was younger than the other participants, “They saw my passion early on and gave me the opportunity,” he says.

Zack Cruz teaches 13 weekly classes through the Abrons Arts Center, including at Henry Street's Early Childhood Education Center.

It was the arts center’s tuition-assistance program that made it possible, Zack says. “Growing up in Section 8 housing with a single mom, there were not many high-quality neighborhood resources like this to take arts classes.”

In the Urban Youth Theater, he learned playwriting, acting, directing, and theater tech, as well as “the importance of being on time, part of a cast, and the sacrifices needed for a career in the arts,” he says. It was his participation in the Rocksteady Crew, a breakdancing workshop at Abrons, that propelled Zack into the world of commercial dance. For the next decade, he lived and worked in L.A. and New York. An encounter in New York City with a former Abrons teacher inspired Zack to resume teaching classes at the center.

Now, Zack teaches 13 classes, six days a week, at Abrons and in local public schools as part of Promoting the Arts Throughout Henry Street (PATHS)—through which Abrons integrates teaching artists into schools on the Lower East Side and within Henry Street programs.

With breaking soon to become an official Olympic sport, Zack is introducing this art form to a new generation of children in the city that invented it. “At Abrons, I'm building connections with generations of local families I grew up alongside. It feels like coming full circle, giving back to the community that shaped me."

As an ensign in the U.S. Navy during the 1980s, Nelson Holland, 61, was a specialist in radio communications. Based both on land and offshore for four years, he received and transcribed coded teletype messages from all over the world.

His early computer skills brought Nelson a series of jobs as an office assistant and mail clerk. More recently, he transported cars for Hertz Rent-A-Car. But in 2019, Nelson says, “I took a downfall.” His girlfriend of 15 years had died of breast cancer. “I was devastated. Lonely. Unhappy. I had done some drinking here and there but never abused it before. Things went out of hand.” His coworkers and family convinced him to enter a recovery program.

Nelson was still in treatment when he learned about Henry Street’s ACCES-VR Unlimited Computer Training program, which got him back on track to a career that he loves. Based at Henry Street’s Community Consultation Center, the program serves people with disabilities with a special focus on those with mental health diagnoses.

“The class was a big help in my recovery.” Nelson says. “Being around positive people really made it easier.”

His new skills helped Nelson secure his job at the New York City Sanitation Department, where, as an administrative assistant, he uses Excel and Outlook daily. Nelson’s bond with ACCES-VR remains strong, and his teacher, Khadijah Bouallou, sends him a Zoom link every day so that he can drop into a remote class whenever he has a question or just wants to visit.

“The transition to the workforce just made me happy,” he beams. “I’m more confident in myself. Now, I’m doing stuff on the job that I learned here.”  

Photo above, from left: Rebecca Simeon, Josephine Fernandez, Carlos Montanez, Kelly de la Torres, Antonio Rodriguez, Angel Tatis.

For more than 22 years, Henry Street’s Expanded Horizons College Access and Success program has guided high schoolers through the college-preparation process and then helped them navigate their college careers. Now, some of these outstanding graduate-leaders have found their way back to the Settlement, where they are serving in crucial roles. 

Raised by his mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother on the Lower East Side, Carlos Montañez, 31, sought out Expanded Horizons in 2009. The program prepared him for the college and financial aid applications and the interview process, he says. After a decade in television and radio news outside of the city, Carlos returned in 2020 to New York, where he was tapped to lead the newly formed Community COVID Response Team. Carlos continues to helm the renamed Community Response Team, which has become an ongoing youth development and community service program.

Kelly De La Torres, 31, became program director for Henry Street’s Job Essentials Training (JET) program in 2023. Introduced to Expanded Horizons by her high school guidance counselor, she earned a master’s degree in education in 2020. Kelly’s JET colleague Jaydee Sanchez, 27, came to Henry Street by way of her mother, a former senior case manager at the Workforce Development Center. Jaydee found her first job through Henry Street’s Summer Youth Employment Program, at 14, and joined Expanded Horizons the next year.

When Josephine Fernandez, 28, reached high school, her mom, a home attendant, couldn't afford SAT prep classes, so Josephine turned to Expanded Horizons. "It was like a village; they helped raise me," she says. Now a social worker, Josephine is the director of the community school that Henry Street co-runs with P.S./M.S. 188. Her colleague, Antonio Rodriguez, 29, also a graduate of the college-preparation program, is a social worker at the same community school. Angel Tatis, 25, has come full circle as a college success coordinator for Expanded Horizons, working with program graduates who are now attending college.