Habitat NYC’s response to COVID-19

UPDATED 6.25.20:

As New York City moves into Phase 2 of the re-opening process, we are thrilled to announce that the Habitat NYC ReStore is now open! We will be open Tuesday-Saturday for in-person shopping from 11 am to 5 pm.

All customers and associates are required to wear masks and adhere to social distancing best practices, and the ReStore associates will sanitize the store frequently. The number of shoppers is limited to five customers at a time, with time inside the store also limited to 20 minute intervals.

For those interested in donating items to the ReStore, please email restore@habitatnyc.org for more information and to schedule a pick up.

UPDATED 6.10.20:

As the New York City area enters the first phase of re-opening after the COVID-19-related shut down, activities at Habitat for Humanity New York City will largely remain the same.

New York State classified our affordable housing construction projects as essential projects, and as such, have been underway for weeks with contractors and staff practicing safe social distancing. Currently there is no set date for when volunteer construction will begin again.

If you’re interested in what we’ve been up to during the COVID-19 shut down, check out this post or our Emergency Housing Response Fund. We look forward to serving our volunteers and ReStore customers, donors and volunteers again soon. Stay safe, New York!

UPDATED 3.29.20: The recently passed CARES Act has impacts on charitable donations. For more information, click here.  

Read below for the most up-to-date information on Habitat NYC’s response to COVID-19. 

A message from our CEO, Karen Haycox, on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Our first priority is always to support the health and safety of our people —and to take a calm and informed approach to address this challenging situation. With this in mind, beginning Monday, March 16, we closed our Manhattan headquarters (with all office staff working remotely), closed our Habitat ReStore (on Northern Blvd., in Queens) and closed all volunteer construction and Brush with Kindness sites. We took this unprecedented step in order to protect our staff, volunteers, donors and customers, the families we seek to serve and the city that we love.

Habitat NYC is currently working on many critical projects and initiatives – building and preserving homes, closing on real estate projects and breaking ground on others! This disruption to our workflow will most certainly affect our fundraising. The families we seek to serve are already vulnerable; many of them in positions at the forefront of the crisis, health care workers, civil servants, service sector employees; those to whom a missed paycheck can mean catastrophe.

During this time, I ask that if you had intended to give to Habitat NYC – if you intended to volunteer, to visit the ReStore, or to donate – that you show your support with a donation now, to keep us building a better city as we face down this pandemic.

We will continue to monitor the situation closely and we will re-open our office, our sites and our ReStore as soon as it is safe to do so.

Please remember to follow recommended health and hygiene protocols and seek up-to-date information on the status of the outbreak, and health resources available to you and your family.

How you can help

With so much underway, there are bound to be questions from our constituents. If you need to get in touch with someone from Habitat NYC for any reason, please read the following options.

Events

Volunteering

ReStore