The Joseph and Pauline Charatan Residence Offers Affordable Housing to Elderly Holocaust Survivors
This post was originally featured on Patch.com
It all started 82 years ago. The year was 1936; World War II was ongoing and Holocaust survivors were fleeing the Nazi regime in hopes of refuge in America. Many of these transplants arrived in New York City with little to their name, so volunteers stepped in to help meet their needs. Those brave volunteers were the foundation of Selfhelp, an organization that has helped assist Holocaust survivors, immigrants, and seniors ever since.
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, philanthropist and real estate veteran Debrah Lee Charatan was first drawn to Selfhelp’s mission to help Holocaust survivors. “Helping them is what motivated me to get involved,” Charatan said, “because their plight is so close to my heart, given my parents’ background and my own.”
Charatan’s reason for supporting Selfhelp represents a legacy that will persist even as the organization’s mission evolves and expands. Selfhelp continues to service thousands of Holocaust survivors every year, but has broadened its audience with new programs and resources that help immigrants and the elderly. All in all, Selfhelp services more than 20,000 “elderly, frail, and vulnerable New Yorkers each year, while remaining the largest provider of comprehensive services to Holocaust survivors in North America.”
One such initiative involves the provision of affordable housing, with one of Selfhelp’s newer residencies built in Charatan’s recognition.
“I’m delighted to participate, and so proud that it will be named after my parents. It’s really wonderful: The Joseph and Pauline Charatan Residence.”
The building began moving in residents during August and will continue to fill apartments throughout October after which a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony will be held.. While the residence will house ten or so Holocaust survivors, its 57 apartments will be filled with a more diverse group of low and moderate-income seniors.
As a real estate professional, Debrah Lee Charatan knows well the difficulty of the housing market in New York City. “Any kind of affordable housing is wonderful because there’s simply not enough of it,” she said. This is especially true for the city’s elderly, who are among the most vulnerable populations and fastest-growing.
“We don’t deal well with the elderly in the country or have significant means to care for them,” Charatan explained, and this deficiency impacts everyone. “Too many people can’t work at all because they have to become caretakers for their parents.”
Selfhelp’s buildings don’t just provide a roof for these individuals; they provide a home, social connection, and quality care. Cutting-edge housing technology is also utilized to ensure the safety and comfort of all residents, from Skype rooms, to telehealth monitoring, emergency pull cords and other elements implemented with seniors in mind.
Though Selfhelp has indeed evolved, its ethos remains the same: to provide the needy with everything they need to live on their own with the dignity and pride they deserve. It is Charatan’s hope that their legacy will continue to reflect this mission for many years to come.
“I’m proud and happy to help everyone who will live [in this new residence], especially the Holocaust survivors who attracted me to this cause in the first place,” Charatan said. “These individuals are becoming more needy, not less, as they age, making Selfhelp’s great work all the more important.”
