Fortune Society, the Academy

West Harlem / Hamilton Heights / Sugar Hill

explore visiting   favorite add to favorites

Fortune Academy

In April of 2002, after six years of strategic planning and development, we opened the doors to the Fortune Academy, a residential housing facility located in West Harlem. Nicknamed “The Castle” for its Gothic architecture and prominent site along the riverfront, the Academy provides 62 beds in single and shared occupancy units for formerly incarcerated individuals who are homeless. Twenty-one of the beds are earmarked for emergency housing and the remaining 41 represent longer-term, “phased permanent,” housing, where residents stay up to a year or longer, depending on their individual needs. The Academy also boasts an industrial kitchen that provides residents with daily nutritious meals, a computer lab, a laundry room and a community space where residents can rest, relax and interact with each other in a drug-free environment.

Like Fortune itself, the Academy is unique in that it provides a broad array of services under one roof, with staff members on hand 24 hours a day to help residents address the multiple problems that confront them. In addition, every resident is required to participate in productive activities at our Long Island City offices – such as education, career development and counseling – to assist them in their successful transition back to the community

Since 2002, the Academy has provided housing for over 700 formerly incarcerated people who were homeless.

Community West Harlem / Hamilton Heights / Sugar Hill