Brooklyn Medicaid Offices: Every HRA Location, What to Bring, and When to Skip the Trip

Brooklyn HRA Medicaid offices: addresses, phones and hours

These are the Brooklyn offices on HRA’s Medicaid locations page, checked on November 3, 2026. HRA publishes the hours below and nothing on appointments or walk-in rules, so call the office number the day before you go.

The office people search for most, “495 Clermont Ave HRA”, is Brooklyn South, on the 4th Floor. The same address also houses HRA’s Clinton Hill Benefits Access Center, which handles Cash Assistance. Ask for the Medicaid office on the 4th Floor so you are not sent to the wrong line. For every other borough, see the citywide list of HRA Medicaid offices.

Brooklyn SNAP centers and Benefits Access Centers

HRA runs three kinds of walk-in sites, and they share buildings, which is where most wasted trips start. A Medicaid office handles Medicaid. A SNAP center handles food benefits. A Benefits Access Center handles Cash Assistance.

Williamsburg and Bushwick have no Medicaid office of their own. If you live there, Brooklyn South at 495 Clermont Avenue or East New York at 2400 Fulton Street is the nearest one HRA lists, and ACCESS HRA online is usually faster than either.

Should you go to a Brooklyn office or apply with NY State of Health?

Most Brooklyn residents never need an HRA office. HRA itself says it accepts Medicaid applications from people 65 or older, people with a disability or blindness, people on Medicare who are not parents or caretakers of minor children, and former foster youth under 26. Everyone else applies with NY State of Health at nystateofhealth.ny.gov or 1-855-355-5777 (TTY 1-800-662-1220).

The state Health Department adds a nuance: more people outside the income-only rules now get Medicaid through NY State of Health too, including people with both Medicare and Medicaid, people 65 and older who are not seeking long-term care, and people applying for a Medicare Savings Program. The state also says that no matter where you start, staff will help you apply in the correct place.

The longer explanation of the two systems is in where to apply for Medicaid in NYC.

Apply on ACCESS HRA instead of visiting

ACCESS HRA is the city’s online benefits portal at a069-access.nyc.gov/accesshra, and HRA lists it as a way to apply for Medicaid and to submit renewals. For anyone in Brooklyn who lives far from Clermont Avenue, Fulton Street or Mermaid Avenue, it replaces the trip and the morning in a waiting room.

If the portal is the obstacle rather than the paperwork, a free facilitated enroller can sit with you and file it (see below).

What to bring to a Brooklyn Medicaid office

For HRA cases, the state Health Department publishes the document list, and the folder is bigger than for a NY State of Health application because these cases can look at resources as well as income.

• Proof of citizenship or immigration status. A U.S. citizen with a valid Social Security number is usually verified through Social Security; a naturalized citizen needs a naturalization certificate or a U.S. passport.
• Proof of age if Social Security does not verify it, such as a birth certificate.
• Four weeks of recent pay stubs if you work.
• Proof of other income: Social Security, VA, pension, unemployment, child support.
• Proof of where you live: a rent receipt, landlord statement, mortgage statement or a recent envelope mailed to you.
• Your Medicare card, and any other insurance card or policy.
• Bank accounts, insurance policies and other resources if you are 65+, blind or disabled and applying for nursing home or community long-term care.

Bring copies and keep the originals. HRA requires proof of Medicare from applicants 65 and older and, if you are not enrolled, requires you to enroll as a condition of Medicaid. The official forms, including the paper application, are on our Medicaid forms page.

Language help at Brooklyn HRA offices

HRA says it provides free interpretation at all walk-in sites in about 180 languages, and that you may ask for an interpreter at any time. If no bilingual worker is free, staff use HRA’s telephone interpretation service. You can also bring your own interpreter if that person is at least 18. HRA offers an “I Speak” card you can show at the desk to name your language without a conversation.

Ask for the interpreter at the front desk, before the interview starts, rather than halfway through it. Do not let a child interpret a Medicaid interview: the rule is 18 or older, and the questions are about household income and immigration status.

If you are refused an interpreter, HRA takes language-access complaints through 311, and says you can file anonymously and regardless of immigration status. Your broader rights to an interpreter in health care are on our language access page.

“I need an interpreter in [language]. I am here to apply for Medicaid with HRA. Can you use the phone interpretation service if no one is free?”

Free in-person help in Brooklyn instead of an office

The state funds Facilitated Enrollers for the Aged, Blind and Disabled, community agencies that help people 65+, blind or disabled apply for Medicaid, free and in person. These are the ones the state lists for Brooklyn (Kings County):

For a NY State of Health application, a certified navigator does the same job and earns no commission. Free navigators. If your case involves a house, transfers of money or a denial you want to fight, a legal services organization is the better fit than any of these.

The weak spot in this advice

Calling ahead is the right move and also the frustrating one: office lines are busy and HRA does not publish whether Brooklyn offices see people without appointments. If you cannot get through, the HRA Medicaid Helpline, 1-888-692-6116, can tell you which office handles your case. If you have to go in without confirmation, arrive near opening time, bring copies of everything, and write down the name of anyone who tells you to go elsewhere.

Being redirected from 495 Clermont Avenue to NY State of Health is a routing decision, not a denial. A written denial has a reason on it, and any decision can be reviewed through a fair hearing. Brooklyn neighborhood context, including how care and transit work locally, is on the East New York and Crown Heights pages.