Used for a senior lunch program, there is the only one room open at the Gowanus Houses Community Center. The rest have been closed to residents for the past 14 years.

"We couldn't have programs, youth programs, GED classes or construction classes, or anything in there," said Theresa Davis, the vice president of the Gowanus Houses Residents Association.

But on Thursday, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson paid a visit to the public housing complex to announce its more than decade-long wait was over.

"We are designating money to finally reopen the Gowanus Community Center," he said. "One of the biggest obstacles was there was no money for it. So the first thing we needed to do was get that money in the budget. So we got the money in the budget, it is allocated."

More than $3 million was allocated in the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget to renovate both the Gowanus Houses facility and the community center in nearby Wyckoff Gardens Houses.

"We need to fully fund the Wyckoff Community Center to expand on its 1950s, 1960s facility and make it a real community center," Brooklyn Councilman Stephen Levin said.

It's welcome news to the community, which is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and many funding promises that were never fulfilled.

"I'm getting emotional because we fought hard. We fought hard," Charlene Nimmons, the former president of the Wyckoff Gardens Resident Association, said at the announcement.

Levin had allocated $475,000 to the Gowanus Center as part of the district's participatory budgeting, but capital costs kept skyrocketing, so the money just sat there. But now that funding, combined with a $3.5 million commitment from the de Blasio administration and the City Council allocation, means the project can move forward.

"The money is here, but we still want to still be included in everything that's going on in our community center," Davis said.

Meantime, the City Council also allocated another $50,000 to make better use of the senior lunch program space now.

"It's going to be possible to have some programming in here while we're waiting for the design to get done and construction to start," Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander said at the announcement.

The City Council and tenants say they will put pressure on the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to get the job done as efficiently and expeditiously as possible.