In search of a building to provide dwelling units for families and individuals completing long-term drug and alcohol treatment, Trinity Institution-Homer Perkins Center, a recently merged not-for-profit organization, had only to look across the street from Trinity Institution. But the three-story brick Greek Revival townhouse at 26 Trinity Place had been abandoned for about 20 years, so contractor Nancy Kupiec and her work crew had their share of challenges.

The first of those challenges was financial, but funding assistance came from several sources: the City of Albany’s Tenant Assistance Rehab Program; the New York State Homeless Housing and Assistance Program; and the New York State Federal Home Loan Bank Program, sponsored by the Troy Savings Bank.

The house’s gable roof was severely deteriorated, as were the parapet walls and the cornice. Though the main support beams were saved, the entire roof had to be removed and replicated, as did the cornice. To relieve the parapet walls of the weight of the roof, knee walls were built in the attic to disperse the roof’s load. Much of the floor and stair areas inside the house also had to be rebuilt. The front façade was repointed and repainted and the lintels and sills restored.

Twenty-six Trinity Place, which contains one two-bedroom and one three-bedroom apartment, is the second supportive housing project to be developed by the Trinity Institution-Homer Perkins Center partnership. The first, 84 Second Street, next to the Homer Perkins Center, was completed in 1998.