We Build Housing Where Everyone Wins

LionFox Development develops affordable and mixed-income housing in New York City.

We plan, we act, we rise, we thrive.

How We Work

We Consult

We know how housing rules work because we helped write some of them. We advise developers, nonprofits, and public agencies on zoning, financing, and approvals, the decisions that determine whether a project gets built or sits still. Our consulting work includes Timbale Terrace in East Harlem and the Stewart Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

We Engage

We bring residents, elected officials, community organizations, and local businesses into the process early, before the plans are fixed. We tell people what is on the table and what is not. Opposition grows where information stops. One45 won unanimous City Council approval in July 2025 because the community was at the table from the start.

We Develop

We build. With our development partners, LionFox raises the financing, acquires the property, guides each project through public approvals, and oversees design and construction until the doors open. We develop mixed-income and affordable housing for people at every income level.

We Empower

We structure every project so every stakeholder has a stake in its success: residents, the community, public partners, and investors. That is the Sensible Housing model, and it empowers because everyone wins.

One45 for Harlem. Harlem, New York. Co-developer.

1,000

Apartments across 3 buildings

338

Permanently affordable homes

Of those, in a 100% affordable building for seniors

Who We Are

LionFox Development, LLC is a New York City real estate development company founded in 2023 by Shams DaBaron, known nationally as Da Homeless Hero and Da Housing Hero.

We are co-developer of One45 in Harlem, where we are delivering the affordable housing, and we advised on Timbale Terrace in East Harlem. We bring the relationships, the policy knowledge, and the standing in the communities where we build.

To develop housing where everyone wins and transitional shelters where residents rise ’n thrive.

To build mixed-income and affordable housing that empowers its residents, communities, and stakeholders.

We plan

we act

we rise

we thrive

We plan

we act

we rise

we thrive

We plan

we act

we rise

we thrive

Our Projects

Co-developer

Harlem, New York. Co-developer.

One45 for Harlem

1,000 apartments across 3 buildings at West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue, including 338 permanently affordable homes, 90 of them in a 100% affordable building for seniors. Approved unanimously by the City Council in July 2025. Demolition is underway.

LionFox is co-developer, delivering the affordable housing. The development team includes One 45 Lenox LLC, Coltown Properties, and Pointsfive. SHoP Architects is the designer.

View the project

Consulting

East Harlem, New York. Consulting.

Timbale Terrace

341 affordable homes in a 20-story building at East 118th Street and Park Avenue, including 97 supportive homes for formerly homeless residents, with the 20,000-square-foot Casa Belongó Music and Arts Center at its base. Developed by Mega Development and Lantern Organization with HPD. Broke ground in February 2026. LionFox advised the project.

View the project

Rendering: Urban Architectural Initiatives

Consulting

Midtown Manhattan, New York. Consulting.

Stewart Hotel

579 permanently affordable apartments in the conversion of the 31-story Stewart Hotel at 371 Seventh Avenue, across from Penn Station, including supportive homes for formerly homeless residents. Acquired December 2025; construction begins late 2026. LionFox advised the project.

“Thirty years ago, I spent many nights curled up on a park bench across from where One45 is proposed. That park bench where I once slept is still there today, but with your vote, it can become the view from someone’s window instead of their bed.”

Shams DaBaron, testimony to the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, May 2025

One45 for Harlem

The City Council approved One45 unanimously in July 2025 after a project on the same site had been voted down years earlier. Demolition is underway.

Da Homeless Hero

Da Housing Hero

Da Homeless Hero

Da Housing Hero

Da Homeless Hero

Da Housing Hero

Meet the Founder

Shams DaBaron

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Shams DaBaron is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LionFox Development and co-developer of One45 in Harlem. Known nationally as Da Homeless Hero and Da Housing Hero, he is one of the most prominent homeless and housing leaders in the country. He is a Trustee of Project Renewal, a Board Member of Housing Solutions of New York, and Policy Committee Chair of African American Real Estate Professionals in New York (AAREPNY). He served on the 2025 New York City Charter Revision Commission, which produced the housing measures voters approved in November 2025. City & State New York named him to its 2026 Black Trailblazers list.

What he has moved

He worked with the administration to help win approval of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the largest zoning reform in New York City in more than 60 years. He brokered the change that raised advance payments to nonprofit service providers from 25% to 50% of contract value, more than $5 billion, by putting nonprofit leaders and senior city officials in the same room and keeping them there. He also pushed for the end of the 90-day rule that kept shelter residents from applying for housing vouchers.

How he got here

Shams entered foster care as a young child, first became homeless at 10, and was permanently discharged from foster care at 12. He survived his teenage years in libraries and subway stations. During the 2020 Lucerne Hotel fight he became known as Da Homeless Hero, and the case he joined established that shelter residents can challenge a transfer before it happens. In 2021 the New York Housing Conference created its Advocate of the Year award for him and gave it once. From there he went inside City Hall, into the rooms where housing policy is written, and he evolved into Da Housing Hero.

Why he builds

Shams DaBaron could change the rules. He started LionFox Development because naming a problem is one thing and building the answer is another. Housing gets built by the people at the table where it is financed, designed, and approved. He went to that table as a builder.

2020

Da Homeless Hero

Became the public voice of the Lucerne Hotel residents
Joined the case that established shelter residents can challenge a transfer before it happens

2021

Advocate of the Year

New York Housing Conference Advocate of the Year
Finalist for The David Prize
Named to Mayor-elect Eric Adams’s transition committee on housing

2022

Inside City Hall

Co-hosted City Hall meetings between homeless New Yorkers and city leaders
Stood with Mayor Adams on new funding for unsheltered New Yorkers

2023

LionFox founded

Started LionFox Development to build housing where everyone wins
Pushed for the end of the 90-day rule on housing vouchers

2024

Da Housing Hero

Helped win approval of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
Appointed to the New York City Charter Revision Commission

2025

One45 approved

City Council approved One45 unanimously
Voters approved the Charter Revision Commission’s housing measures
Brokered the rise in nonprofit advance payments from 25% to 50%

2026

Trailblazer

Named to City & State New York’s Black Trailblazers
Timbale Terrace broke ground in East Harlem

OUR CORE VALUES

Dignity and Respect

Every person deserves housing that honors who they are and gives them room to succeed.

Win/Win Solutions

There is no Sensible Housing unless every stakeholder benefits. When developers, residents, communities, and investors all come out ahead, the project gets built and it lasts.

Transparency

We say what is on the table and what is not, from the first meeting to the ribbon cutting.

Sustainability

We build for the long run: buildings that hold up and neighborhoods that are stronger in year 20 than in year 1.

Sensible Housing

Sensible Housing is our standard, and it is how we get to win/win: we consult, engage, develop, and empower, with every stakeholder, on every project.