RIO GRANDE, NJ - Crystal Hamer, 27, has been searching in vain since 2006 for an affordable place to live in Cape May County while she works, goes to school, and raises her child here as a single parent. She relocated to the county in 2006 and has been working several part time jobs since, earning 50 credits toward a social work degree. "I need a safe, affordable place to live and to work and to go to school," she told people eager to hear about creating affordable housing options May 22 at a workshop at Atlantic Cape Community College Cape May campus.
Ruby Walker, of Court House, told attendees she is the mother of eight children, three of whom are grown and five of whom her husband and she adopted and she is still raising. She came to the workshop dressed in her medical uniform, and her voice was quiet when she told her story. Since her husband died two years ago, she has faced a multitude of challenges keeping a roof over her and her children's heads.
She pays $2,200 a month in rent to live in a home she and her husband used to own, but which fell into foreclosure. One son is in college and two of her children receive social security, which helps financially, but not enough. She can't get welfare or food stamps because she works full time as a physical therapist aide, and she doesn't have medical insurance. "I don't have any help," she said.
About 25 people came to the workshop, sponsored by South Jersey Legal Services, to hear options for improving and creating more affordable housing options in the county. The workshop attracted those interested in obtaining affordable housing and those interested in creating it. Several ideas and initiatives were raised. Daniel Auld, director of Bridges, a tax exempt outreach program of the Great Commission Baptist Church, in Court House, is seeking assistance from the community to help repair and upgrade a home at 18 Swainton Goshen Rd., to be used to house a family in need.
The building is structurally sound and has vinyl siding; it is landscaped and furnishings are available. The organization is seeking donations for materials, labor, or financial assistance, he said. They are also seeking help with plumbing, electrical, floor coverings, roofing, kitchen cabinets, appliances and bathroom fixtures. Connie Pascale, Esq., vice president Legal Services of New Jersey, spoke to the group on "What can individuals and community groups do?"
He gave a brief background on the law relating to affordable housing in New Jersey but mostly focused upon his experience as a housing advocate in Toms River. "Housing isn't about units, it's about people," he said. "Mt. Laurel wasn't about housing it was about people." Mt. Laurel was the court case in the late 1970s that outlawed housing discrimination and created a mandate for affordable housing in New Jersey. But the mechanism to do that created by the Legislature through the Coalition on Affordable Housing has not worked to create enough affordable housing, or create it where it's most needed, according to advocates.
The principal driving factor is the builder's remedy lawsuit. The threat of lawsuits from private developers is the incentive for town fathers and mothers to create appropriate zoning to enable affordable housing to be built in their municipalities. But over the years, mechanisms in the law have enabled towns to effectively "buy-out" of their requirement of so many units through exchanges with neighboring towns.
These controversial "regional contribution agreements" have been used consistently by wealthy towns with a "not in my backyard" mentality to push off their affordable housing requirements buy selling them to Trenton, Newark, or areas that are more economically depressed. Now, a bill pending in the Legislature sponsored by Assembly Sp
Source: CapeMayCountyHerald.com