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Classic. Give me my money. I love these people. Give me my money.

I wish I got paid to move, but that's right I have a job and it's my responsibility to pay for these people. I'm sorry, I'll go back to work now so these people can enjoy my hard earned money.

Demolition is news to Montgomery Gardens tenant leader

by Ken Thorbourne
Tuesday October 14, 2008, 7:17 PM

Tenant leaders at the Montgomery Gardens public housing complex in Jersey City claimed they were blindsided by today's Jersey Journal story about plans to demolish the 435-unit complex to build a low-rise, mixed-income development.

Tenants said they understood developers were being recruited for the job, but thought it all would play out over five years, said Tenant Council President Dorothy Carter.

Jersey City Housing Authority officials said in today's story they hoped to select a developer by the end of the year and have a finished plan by next summer or fall.

"They (JCHA officials) just jumped the gun and made the decision without including us. I disagree with the way this is going," Carter said.

JCHA Executive Director Maria Maio said tenant leaders have been kept informed and will play key roles in deciding what gets built. "We meet every month" said Maio.

Three tenants will sit on the committee that selects among the four developers who have submitted proposals, Maio said. "I have said this to Dorothy three times."

None of the tenants objected to new plans for the development -- a victim of federal budget cuts, ongoing gang and gun violence, and a nationwide push for smaller, more manageable public housing.

Metrovest Equities -- the developer transforming the old Jersey City Medical Center into a swanky condo complex next to Montgomery Gardens -- is in the running to be selected as a developer for the six-acre site.

And they will be treated like everybody else, Maio said. "We (the JCHA) have a very good reputation for having a process that complies with legal and any ethical standards there might be," she said. "People know there will be a process that is fair and equitable to everyone."

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GLINDA: Then close your eyes, and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself -- "There's no place like home; there's no place like home; there's no place like home."

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Are you willing to live in the same conditions as Jenkins endured for the past many years she was there. That's how housing works. Similar to jail, free room & board which means free rent, 3 sq. meals, heat, utilities, etc. But the enviroment is horrible. Bad trade off, very bad trade off.

"In the community of people dedicated to analyzing poverty, one of the sharpest debates is over why some poor people act in ways that ensure their continued indigence. Compared with the middle class or the wealthy, the poor are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work. ...

...traditional economics just doesn't apply to the poor. When we're poor, Karelis argues, our economic worldview is shaped by deprivation, and we see the world around us not in terms of goods to be consumed but as problems to be alleviated. This is where the bee stings come in: A person with one bee sting is highly motivated to get it treated. But a person with multiple bee stings does not have much incentive to get one sting treated, because the others will still throb....Poverty is less a matter of having few goods than having lots of problems....

Karelis argues that being poor is defined by having to deal with a multitude of problems: One doesn't have enough money to pay rent or car insurance or credit card bills or day care or sometimes even food. Even if one works hard enough to pay off half of those costs, some fairly imposing ones still remain, which creates a large disincentive to bestir oneself to work at all....

Reducing the number of economic hardships that the poor have to deal with actually make them more, not less, likely to work, "


Boston Globe

Another way of looking at this is that bad decisions tend to compound. It's not a matter of an uncontrollable external influence (the silly multiple bee sting metaphor) but bad choices feeding on themselves. As a counter example, look at how successful many poor immigrants have been by not being inclined to: "drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work".

I am very grateful that my parents, who came here with the shirts on their backs, were completely ignorant of liberal poverty nonsense. I'm sure that the future of our country will be well served by future immigrants ignoring such claptrap.

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Jeebus,

You do have a good point:
...bad choices feeding on themselves. As a counter example, look at how successful many poor immigrants have been by not being inclined to: "drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work".

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I am one of 5 children raised by a single mother. We were on welfare in the early days when I was 4 years old. When we were all in school Mom got part time work and then full time work.

We all became responsible adults and members of the community.

It all starts at home. Parents have to raise the expectations and not back down.

$80M Jersey City agency in turmoil - Controls low-income housing, but tenants and leadership in limbo

By Ricardo Kaulessar
Hudson Reporter
10/31/2008

Jersey City Housing Authority Executive Director Maria Maio probably wished she didn't attend Wednesday's monthly meeting for the agency's public housing tenants.

Maio's agency oversees 13 subsidized housing complexes in Jersey City, using an $80 million federally funded budget from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The meeting was held in Montgomery Gardens, a complex on Montgomery Street that the JCHA intends to knock down and replace with mixed-income housing. The tenants believe they were not warned about the plans, and are worried they won't get their homes back after the transformation.

In fact, at Wednesday's meeting, one of the housing board's ex-commissioners presented an internal memo saying the agency plans to approve a developer by as early as Dec. 10 who would build new housing on the site of the demolished building.

Losing their homes?

At the meeting in the complex's community center Wednesday, Maio was questioned by residents in the crowd of over 100 as well as current board commissioner Ed Cheatam and former board commissioner Lori Serrano.

Also in attendance was City Councilman Steven Fulop, who represents the downtown area including Montgomery Gardens.

The residents were unhappy at comments made by Maio last month in newspapers about the 435-unit, six-building complex being slated for demolition within the next two years. Four developers have already submitted development proposals to Maio, including one who is working on an adjacent condo building.

Residents at the meeting were upset that Maio provided this information to the press but according to them, had not given out the same information at the monthly meetings.

Wanting some honesty

Cheatam said that at previous meetings, Maio had denied that there was a concrete plan for the future of the complex. Then, Serrano showed an internal JCHA memo from Sept. 23 that details a schedule for the review of proposals, including giving a developer a contract by Dec. 10.

Cheatam insisted that Maio should schedule meetings between potential developers and residents within the next two weeks to explain the various development proposals, so the tenants could offer their input.

Maio tried to defend her comments in a recent New York Times article, claiming she made them after getting a call from a reporter. Maio also said that any presentation by developers would not be scheduled until Dec. 31.

Before the meeting ended, some were calling for Maio to be "voted out" of her job.

Maio spoke to a few residents after the meeting, but her only comment to the Hudson Reporter about the meeting was, "I'm glad we had a good turnout," before walking away.

Other things come out

The meeting also saw Cheatam lashing out at Maio because Serrano had to vacate her volunteer position on the seven-member Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on Oct. 22. She was replaced by new board member Raj Mukerji, a 24-year-old lobbyist for Mayor Jerramiah Healy, by a 6-0 City Council vote (with two abstentions).

Cheatam, Serrano, and others in the audience believed Serrano was replaced through machinations on Maio's part. The ostensible reason for Serrano's removal was that she did not complete the courses required to serve as a commissioner, particularly as the board's chairperson. Fulop apologized at Wednesday's meeting for voting for Mukerji (whom Fulop also praised) instead of abstaining. He also called for "more transparency" from Maio and offered his support to the residents.

Serrano, in an interview last week, provided e-mails buttressing her point that she shouldn't have been taken off the board. An e-mail from Maria Maio's secretary dates Feb. 28, 12 days after an 18-month period ended for her to take the five required courses. That e-mail confirms that Serrano was registered for an additional course, rather than being told that she did not complete the required courses on time. Serrano also said last week that she has documentation proving that she completed the required courses, but she had not provided it as of press time.

Serrano is also suspicious about the timing of her being replaced on the board, only one week after an Oct. 15 special commissioners meeting in which Serrano took Maio to task for not informing the board that she would be speaking to newspapers about Montgomery Gardens. Also at that meeting, board members had asked Maio to look at cutting positions in Maio's office, as requested by HUD based on an independent review of the Housing Authority in May.

"Maria only wants the people on the board to be her rubber stamp," Serrano said. "She was out to get me because I was holding her accountable."

When interviewed last week before the Wednesday meeting, Maio said that she was not behind the decision to replace Serrano. She also said that that the board has approved Cinciarelli as new board chairperson, and may have to rescind decisions approved at board meetings from late February to Oct. 15, when Serrano might have been ineligible.

But Serrano claims that the approval of a new board chairperson was illegal, and that any change like that required advertisement for a public meeting in local newspapers.

Comments on this story can be sent to rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com

All I can say is WOW! What a mess, that needs to be cleaned up asap.