Advocates: Homeless housing in fort plan 'just not enough'
Draft reuse plan meets 20 percent of county's need
BY JENNA O'DONNELL Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — Plans for homeless accommodations on Fort Monmouth propose to meet 20 percent of the need in Monmouth County, yet advocates continued to contest the lack of affordable housing at a Aug. 15 public hearing.

At the fourth and final hearing for the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA) reuse plan, affordable housing advocates once again criticized numbers that they said were "just not enough."

FMERPA Deputy Director Rick Harrison went over the authority's Homeless Assistance submission, a mandated measure under the McKinney Act, which requires that federal agencies identify and make available surplus federal property to assist homeless people.

Harrison said that during its Notice of Interest (NOI) application process, FMERPA had received 14 NOIs.

"We think it's critical that we take care of these folks, and we are looking to accommodate that with our homeless NOIs," he said.

He said that key Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements were to reach an appropriate balance between the economic development on the fort property and the needs of homeless people.

Some guidelines applied in meeting that need are: to consider the size and nature of the homeless population in the surrounding area; to consider existing services addressing the needs of the homeless; to account for the feasibility of fort buildings as homeless accommodations; and to consider the economic impact of proposed installations on surrounding communities.

"I think we've done a pretty good job of [creating a permanent supportive housing bank]," Harrison said.

This concept would require a bank administrator, designated as the Affordable Housing Alliance, Eatontown advocacy group, to operate and maintain facilities.

Harrison went over plans to allocate 20 single-family units to accommodate mentally, developmentally and physically disabled homeless, homeless substance abusers and veterans. Another 20 units of permanent supportive housing will be made available for homeless and chronically homeless families as part of the fort reuse plan.

"If you look at the Point in Time survey numbers in the past couple of years, there has been an increase in the number of persons in homeless families," Harrison said. "So that was something that we really wanted to focus on."

Additional plans outlined by Harrison include the construction of a new 15,000- square-foot single adult shelter to accommodate up to 40 people. This will replace the current facility located in the Oceanport section of Fort Monmouth.

Some NOIs that will be granted are those of Family Promise and 180 Turning Lives Around. Family Promise will occupy a facility currently used as a counseling center, to be used as a day center to accommodate up to 10 families, while 180 Turning Lives Around will be conveyed a safe house for domestic violence victims to accommodate up to 15 women and their children.

After hearing the Homeless Assistance submittal plans, various advocates wanted to know where those homeless people would go next without an adequate amount of affordable housing.

Advocates see the closure of the fort as an opportunity. The consensus from various testimonies given by advocates was that current housing numbers are insufficient and that planners and authority members ought to take another look at their plan.

Linda Zucaro, co-chair of the Monmouth Advocacy Team and a Tinton Falls resident, thought that the plan was a good start, but needed more than the proposed 375 affordable units in the fort's overall 1,500 proposed residential units by 2028.

"I think we have a common vision," Zucaro said. "We want a place where there are good jobs, commercial opportunities, recreation facilities for the community, and housing, especially housing for people who work and want to live in Monmouth County."

She called the housing element in the plan essential and fundamental.

"Three hundred seventy-five units over a 20-year period, of housing that's affordable, is simply an inadequate number," Zucaro said.

The Rev. Jane Price, pastor of First Reformed Church in Long Branch, protested the "moral shortsightedness" of the master plan.

"Presented with the opportunity to provide more jobs and housing, FMERPA appears ready to give this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity only a token nod," Price said. "We're presented with a plan that does very little to increase the stock of housing for lowand moderate-income families."

Janice Liebenow, of Holmdel, said that too much stereotypical thinking had led people to regard having neighbors of low- to moderate-income in a negative way.

"It is a delusion for people to think that only poor people do bad things," Liebenow said. "At all socioeconomic levels, we care about the same things."

Single mothers and victims of abuse gave testimony to the need for affordable housing, which is subject to long waiting lists and not easily available.

"Women are forced to go right back to the same situation because there's nothing affordable," said J.J. Mistretta, Freehold. "The towns need to think about other ways of saving, and not just worry about children coming in."

Karen Walsh, a former Tinton Falls resident and single mother, said that as a former candidate for affordable housing, she knew firsthand the emotional turmoil that came with being transient.

"I was very fortunate that I was offered a house in Middletown at a time when I didn't have the finances to get into this beautiful setting," Walsh said.

In working with the Family Promise program, Walsh said she had been a witness to the effects that a transient lifestyle could have on families.

"I have worked with homeless people that have had hardships as well, and they really are working very hard to get their lives together," she said. "When they graduate from this program, they have no place to go."

As an educator, Walsh recounted the difficulties for children whose families are forced to live in hotels.

"You look at the children and you can see that they need a constant, loving environment," she said.

Rabbi Gordon Yaffe, president of the Greater Long Branch Ministerium Interfaith, looked at the transition of the fort in a positive light.

"We're talking about a piece of property, part of the military establishment of our country that has served its purpose for war, and we now have the opportunity to take this property and use it for peacetime activities of our community."

Yaffe said it was incumbent upon leaders to do whatever is possible to provide the basic needs for members of the community.

"I'm here to say that we have an opportunity to take a piece of landwithin our community and to use it in the right way," he said. "To stand back and let it happen, if we just turn the other way when we know that so many people don't have a place to lay their head and to take their families, that is morally wrong."

The Rev. Robert Pierce Jr., assistant pastor at New Beginnings Agape Christian Center in Freehold, shared the vision of Fort Monmouth's closing as a prospect to help people.

"We have an opportunity here to do good," he said. "We can do some good for 375 units or we can do much good with 1,500 units. You have 12 days to reconsider. In Monmouth County … we address the issue

of affordable housing by doing much good."

FMERPA Executive Director Frank Cosentino, who presented a brief overview of the final draft plan prior to public discussion, emphasized the importance of public input and the authority's continued efforts to find balance in their plan.

"Balance is the key word here," Cosentino said. "We hope and believe that this plan creates potential for jobs to be replaced, enhances the mobility of this area, and establishes a framework of positive fiscal impact.

"The concept is not to add to the burden of taxation, which is already severe."

Yet taxation is a fear shared by the fort's three host towns of Oceanport, Tinton Falls and Eatontown, which struggle to find a balance between meeting affordable housing requirements and keeping a lid on their tax rates.

Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon said in May that fulfilling the request of advocates for 1,500 units of affordable housing would effectively double both the tax rate and population for his small borough.

The 1,126-acre fort is slated for closure in September 2011, when the majority of operations will be moved to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

The final draft plan goes before the full FMERPA board for a vote during a special meeting at 7 p.m. Aug. 27 at Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls.

The reuse plan, along with the Homeless Assistance submission, are due for submission to HUD and the Department of Defense by Sept. 8.