By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
For sale: one bedroom condo in Long Branch; fixer-upper was on the list for Sandy aid, but not any more.
“We got the approval from the state, and the funds have not been distributed. It has been this way since December,” explained Realtor Gina Sapnar.
She had hoped to sell and repair this unit using grant money from New Jersey’s $30 million Neighborhood Enhancement Program.
“Sea Bright, Keansburg, Union Beach areas really could use the money. There’s blocks of homes that have been washed out to sea. I think those areas could really benefit,” said Sapnar.
But the NEP grants don’t require any housing units go to Sandy victims. Of the $25 million in approved projects, $1.3 million would go to Ocean County, which lost 10 percent of its housing to Sandy; $2.3 million to Monmouth County, which lost 5 percent; but a whopping $12.7 million is apparently headed to Essex County, which lost 0.1 percent of its housing stock to Sandy.
“The bottom line is New Jersey has not recovered in a way that’s fair or transparent or equitable yet. If that money is not being spent in the places that were damaged the most, that’s not sending the right message to the survivors,” said Staci Berger from Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
“So to see money going to non-Sandy victims is insult after injury,” said Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider.
The mayor of Long Branch says 15 families in his town alone still have nowhere to live.
“Somebody’s got to start paying attention instead of the big picture-,where they can fund a project in Belleville or a project in Newark. They’ve got to look at people on the ground in the towns that got badly hit,” said Schneider.
Realtors in this area say several properties just like this one — that could’ve qualified for this special funding — have now gone into foreclosure while waiting for money that was promised but never paid.
The Department of Community Affairs explained that the NEP Grants are “Construction based, HUD requires that time-consuming environmental and historic reviews be done for each project because there was more interest in this blight-reduction program from developers in Essex County.”
“these programs, they sound wonderful but I just don’t understand in reality are they set up to fail or did they just not think the whole thing through,” said Realtor Donna King.
King says thats o many displaced Sandy victims down the shore can’t find affordable housing. People need to pay attention.