Ali Forney Center to Receive $3.3 Million for Bea Arthur Residence

The Ali Forney Center will receive $3.3 million from the city of New York to renovate city property into a homeless LGBT youth center, according to a statement released Monday.

The City Council and Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer have designated $3.3 million in funding to renovate 222 E. 13th St., a property in Manhattan's East Village neighborhood, into the Bea Arthur Residence for Homeless LGBT Youth. The property is currently owned by the New York City Department of Housing and Preservation and Development, which will transfer ownership to the Ali Forney Center and the Cooper Square Committee, a community organization that advocates "affordable and environmentally healthy housing," before renovations can begin.

The approximately 18-bed residential facility will provide supportive housing for homeless LGBT youth in New York City.

"Homeless LGBT youth, most of whom have been cast out of their homes, have faced the worst kind of cruelty and rejection," said Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, in the press release. "I am overwhelmed with gratitude that they [are] now being shown such kindness by this community and its leaders."

The Ali Forney Center has provided a safe shelter for New York City's LGBT  youth since June 2002. The new facility will be named for the late actress Bea Arthur, a supporter of the Ali Forney Center who died in 2009 and left the organization $300,000 in her will. Arthur gave a benefit performance in New York City in November 2005, raising more than $40,000 for the Ali Forney Center.