Displaced residents may get permanent housing

NJDCA to provide $400,000

Suburban Trends
Sunday, March 15, 2009
By Teresa Edmond
Staff Writer

For more than two years, the 23 displaced Upper Ringwood residents and their supporters have been gripping the edge of their seats wondering if they would ever get permanent housing.

Recently, Ringwood residents and advocates have gained good reason for hope after learning that the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) promised a $400,000 grant that would include $120,000 toward replacement housing for each of the two displaced households.

The 23 residents had to vacate their Van Dunk Lane homes in November 2006 when they learned that their homes were located on old mining grounds.

Advocates, including the non-profit Skylands CLEAN, having been pushing for the displaced residents to get temporary housing when the borough acquires and demolished their homes.

Reassurance came with good new delivered at the Community Advisory Group (CAG) meeting on Feb. 24. There, Caroline Fefferman of Senator Robert Menendez's office revealed that Menendez and Sen. Frank Lautenberg were concerned that the residents should be moved to permanent homes.

According to Fefferman, DCA Commissioner Joseph Doria told her that the $400,000 Neighborhood Preservation Grant will include $120,000 for replacement housing for the occupants of the two homes.

CLEAN Executive Director Robin O'Hearn is certain that since the DCA "gave their word" to Senator's Menendez's office about getting part of the $400,000 to cover the relocation, the DCA would follow through with its promise.

In a press release, CAG facilitator Michael Lythcott, who has been working with Skylands CLEAN and the CAG-appointed subcommittee has been actively seeking a solution to the problem.

According to Lythcott, the subcommittee has learned that the $240,000 for the two homes should be adequate for the resident's permanent housing. He also said that the subcommittee has been investigating suitable homes for displaced residents, and there are hopes that the mortgage holders could be talked in transferring the mortgages from the abandoned Van Dun Lane houses to the new houses.

"It is important to note that our displaced families were not looking to be enriched. They just needed to be kept whole," Lythcott said in the press statement.

O'Hearn said in the same statement that the advocates have fought to make alternative housing "a top priority," and she is thankful for state officials' assistance in the matter.

"We are so grateful to Senators Menendez and Lautenberg and also to DCA for their vision in seeing to it that Neighborhood Preservation is about families first and real-estate relate matters second," she said.

The borough is drafting a proposal that it will send to the DCA for approval regarding the terms and conditions of the $400,000 usage, according to Olga Alvarez, a spokesperson for Menendez's office. She also said that the residents are allowed to put the money toward the purchase of a new home of their choice.

Likewise, former Mayor Wenke Taule, who has been helping the displaced residents, expressed relief that the 23 residents could find their way to permanent housing at last.

"Finally, people who had been abruptly removed from their homes for safety reasons can tell their children that a permanent home will again be part of their lives," Taule said in the statement. "This is the best new I've heard in months."