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Politics & Government

Affordable Housing Groups Honored

Freeholders mark Affordable Housing Month.

A pair of single mothers who work as an administrative assistant and a customer service representative. A family of five in which the father is a sanitation worker. A phlebotomist for a local hospital who is also a single mother with two children.

Those are the families scheduled to move into Peer Place in Denville, a six-unit complex being built by Morris Habitat for Humanity.

Morris Habitat is a member of the Housing Alliance of the United Way of Northern New Jersey. The alliance's members were honored this week by the Morris County Board of Freeholders with a proclamation celebrating October as Affordable Housing Month.

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The need for affordable housing has never been greater, said Jodi Miciak, chair of the alliance and the United Way's director of community impact for income.

"These are people who live and work in our communities," Miciak said. "Teachers, people at the grocery store, librarians. And many are who we call ALICE, the working poor."

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ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed), she said, was a study sponsored by the United Way that showed that one-quarter of Morris County families of four earn between $20,000 and $60,000.

The federal poverty rate is approximately an annual income of $22,000 for a family of four. A sustainable income of $60,000 is necessary to be able to live in the county, where the median income is $91,000, the report said.

Miciak said the residents who qualify as ALICE are paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

While Morris County is known for its professional jobs, the ALICE study found that there are three times as many low-paying jobs in the county as there are high-paying ones, and that half the jobs in the county pay less than $40,000 annually.

In addition to the six-unit Peer Place, Morris Habitat is building a three-unit project in Mount Olive, and six units in Summit (in partnership with housing authorities of Madison and Summit).

Homeless Solutions just completed 10 units of housing in Washington Township. It and has planned six units on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Morristown, and two units on Morristown's Morton Street.

Morris Habitat and Homeless Solutions have led the way for several affordabe housing projects in the Second Ward in Morristown in the past five years.

Other agencies develop housing for special populations.

New Bridge Services converted its former headquarters in Pequannock into housing for special needs and low-income clients, and Rose House opened a group home in Hanover where developmentally disabled clients live on their own.

Community Hope of Parsippany, which began converting old residences at the former Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany and Morris Plains to transitional housing for patients leaving that state facility, has been a leader in the development of housing for homeless veterans.

Community Hope housing has sheltered 95 homeless veterans at the Veterans Administration facility at Lyons in Bernards Township, and is planning to shelter 63 more.

Morris County supports affordable housing through applications or grants from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The county helped agencies and towns receive $3.2 million in HOME Investment Program funds, Community Development Block Grants, and Emergency Shelter Program funds.

HOME funds went to: Community Hope, which received $250,000 for special needs housing; Headquarters Community Development, a division of Homeless Solutions, $240,000 for construction of rental housing in Morristown; Morris Habitat, $350,000 for a Madison project; and the Housing Partnership, $15,000 for homeowner education programs.

Block Grants were awarded to: Community Hope, $87,800 for improvements to housing; Morris County Community Development office, $195,425 for homeowner rehabilitation projects; Hope House, $99,600 for Operation Fix-It; Madison Affordable Housing Corp., $71,729 for the purchase of a home on Orchard Street, Madison; New Bridge Services, Inc., $34,100 for fire safety improvements.

Emergency Shelter Program grants: Jersey Battered Women's Service, $10,000 for nights of shelter; Morris County Office of Temporary Assistance, $29,905 for homeless prevention services; Interfaith Council for Homeless Families of Morris County, $29,952 for case management; and Homeless Solutions, $29,560 for family shelter program.

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