Fostering Self-Sufficiency
Housing Alliance :: Press Releases
Morris Advocates Join Housing Rally: Homes for New Jersey Gathering in Trenton Stresses Need Across State
September 23, 2005 – Trenton, NJ – When the speakers at Thursday's Homes For New Jersey rally talked about families seeking a way to find a home they can afford, they were speaking about people like Bruce Gallagher of Mount Olive.
Gallagher, 35, works for the township water department but cannot afford to move his family out of their $800-a-month apartment near Budd Lake to another, larger home in the place he has called home for the past 28 years.
"I'm in the middle income category," he said. "I'd like to stay in Morris County since I work for the township and volunteer on the rescue squad. But the cost of homes had tripled in the past three years."
Gallagher said since he works installing water lines, he has an idea how much homes cost in Mount Olive and few homes are available for under$500,000, while many homes start at $750,000.
With a 9-year-old daughter, he and his wife are looking for a place where she can play and have enough room in the home to invite her friends over.
"I looked at fixer-upper for about $200,000," he said, "but the cost to fix it up would have cost me more than twice that."He said they looked in Pennsylvania, but with gas at $3 a gallon, the cost of commuting was too high.
Gallagher was asked to speak at the rally but could not change his work schedule.
The rally on the steps of the state War Memorial drew a cheering, singing crowd of 500 people from across the state, and about 70 from Morris County.
At one point the crowd jeered James Ragan, vice president of the Bank of New York Mortgage, and a member of the Homes for New Jersey steering committee, as he tried to say that banks have recognized the housing needs.
When they quieted down, Ragan said that the development of homes helps strengthen communities because neighborhood crime and drug use diminish and community activism, involvement and church attendance increase. Children in stable homes also perform better on math, language and standard tests, Ragan said.
Homes for New Jersey is a newly minted coalition of 235 housing groups, banks, utility companies, elected officials and nonprofit agencies that plans to bring its message of the need to develop 100,000 affordable homes in 10 years to the fall election campaigns.
Sandy Accomando, chairwoman of the New Jersey Alliance for the Homeless, pledged to advocate for the state's poorest.
"We will not allow the lowest income people to be forgotten or cast aside because it's convenient or because dealing with them is uncomfortable," Accomando said. "This campaign must lift all New Jersey citizens."
Accomando highlighted the political nature of the rally and the organization's efforts by urging those who were not registered to vote to do so.
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, got a bigger ovation for blasting the Bush administration's spending in Iraq.
Some Morris County residents said they were glad the rally was raising the issue of affordable housing. Their presence highlighted how hard it is for the disabled to maintain housing.
Arthur Franklin of Dover said he just found a place to live after several months of staying in a shelter run by Homeless Solutions. He lives on a $600 a month disability check that leaves him little for food, transportation and other needs, he said.
He is a college graduate and trained mathematician who would like to be a graphic artist, he said, but was recently turned down for training because he was told he had too much education.
Living in an apartment is better than the shelter, Franklin said, but it is hard to get ahead.
Robert Gansler of Dover pays $500 a month for a room in a boarding house – not much bigger than a closet, he said.
"Everybody thinks Morris County is the richest county in the state – we're not," said Gansler, who is on disability for depression. "They're looking at businesses, not people."
Contact
Michael Daigle
973.267.7947
mdaigle@gannett.com
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