Ribbon-cutting for new affordable housing in Jersey City

Jersey Journal
by Charles Hack
Wednesday March 25, 2009

Disabled persons with low, or even no income, now have eight more units of housing in Jersey City.

The ribbon was cut yesterday for the All Saints Supportive Housing Development at Bergen Avenue near Bidwell Avenue.

Built on two vacant lots, the housing will be managed by the Jersey City Episcopal Community Development Corporation, said Carol Mori, executive director of JCECDC.

"This elegant building will serve as an asset to the neighborhood but also to the people who will live here for many years," Mori said yesterday
.
Most residents at the three-story building will pay a third of their income in rent, officials said. But even persons with no income can be accepted, they said.

The project is subsidized by the state's Department of Community Affairs State Rental Assistance Program and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development's Supportive Housing Program.

The 700-square-foot one-bedroom apartments are equipped with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, front-loader washer and dryers, and also feature bamboo hardwood floors, said John Restrepo, JCECDC's real estate director.

The city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund Program covered $416,000 of the nearly $2 million development costs. Another $1.2 million came from the state Housing and Mortgage Financing Agency and $400,000 from HUD, officials said.

Funding for case management services will be provided through HUD's Continuum of Care Program and the city's Division of Community Development, officials said.

"Affordable housing is very important and we have been doing it for a long time in Jersey City, but addressing the needs for people with special needs is even more important," Mayor Jerramiah Healy said.

The first tenants should move in next month, officials said.