By David Cruz
Correspondent
It has become fashionable to refer to gentrifying cities as the new Brooklyn. And with its bustling downtown, complete with outdoor cafes, hip murals and ubiquitous condo developments, Jersey City is the latest town to inspire the question. But with gentrification comes displacement and a spike in the cost of living, especially when it comes to housing. Realtor Matt Franklin has seen the Jersey City real estate market explode over the last five years.
“It’s always been convenient to live, with transportation,” he noted, “but more recently, with the new local establishments changing over to more experienced entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of lifestyle features that have come in and made it even more popular, so people’s friends they wanna live here; they wanna come visit. It’s become a destination place. And it’s reflected in the real estate prices.”
Translation? A small two-bedroom — on the low end — about $1,800. In some of the newer buildings, a two-bedroom can rent for upwards of $3,400. How’s a working stiff supposed to afford to live there? Tom DeGise is the Hudson County executive and a life-long city resident. Today he cut the ribbon on a new public golf course — $18 a round for residents (take that Brooklyn) — but he says the affordable housing gap is widening.
“You know the poor people who live in Hudson County were not air-dropped in here,” he said. “They went to high school here. They went to grammar school. They’re born here. They grew up on the same streets as I did, and the rest of us and you too, so we have an obligation to see that they have a chance to participate in what is going on in Jersey City.”
But with real estate so expensive, developers say they can’t afford to build affordable housing. It takes economic incentives. Mayor Steve Fulop announced this week that a project in the heart of downtown will use a $40 million state grant and city incentives to set aside 80 affordable housing units in the first phase of what will be a 10-year multi-building project.
“When people think about the number — $40 million number — it’s a large number, but then they have to think what would it cost to build 80 units today, a block away from the waterfront, that’s affordable. It would cost more than $40 million with land value included, so we feel like we’re getting a good deal,” he said.
It’s numbers like that that make an old-timer like 89-year-old Greenville resident Vincent Rizzio shake his head. The World War II veteran and father of six says he hasn’t been downtown in years. It’s a “nobody goes there any more; it’s too crowded” kind of thing.
“Who knows what’s gonna happen in the future,” he said. “I haven’t heard anybody say, ‘I pay X amount of money for rent and I think it’s fair.’ They got you by the throat. They wanna grab you here and squeeze, and you gotta agree with them.”
If you get away from downtown, rents are only slightly more affordable, and the neighborhoods slighly less chic. The mayor says his goal is to get more affordable housing downtown and more market rate housing in the inner city. It’s going to be a pretty good trick in a real estate market that has a full head of steam and a line of renters and buyers waiting to plunk their money down.
Longtime residents will tell you Jersey City ain’t Brooklyn. In fact the two are quite different from one another with one exception. In both, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find an affordable place to live.