By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Demand is high for affordable housing in the two Princetons at a time when long-time residents find themselves unable to continue living here, say representatives of local affordable housing agencies.
Christy Peacock, the township’s affordable housing coordinator, spoke Saturday of the changing face of affordable housing ownership.
”Due to the economic downturn, we’re seeing people who had six-figure incomes. Their income has now been reduced to low-income levels,” Ms. Peacock said at First Baptist Church during a community meeting on affordable housing. “They are grateful to be able to say they are on the road to economic recovery because they can own or rent low-income units.”
She said college graduates, another group the downturn has impacted, are using affordable housing as their starter homes. Also, seniors on fixed incomes are turning to affordable housing because they want to downsize yet remain in their communities.
But Leighton Newlin, chairman of the Princeton Housing Authority, expressed concern for long-time Princeton residents.
”The fabric of this community, the infrastructure of this great town, was built on the backs of African-Americans and mostly Italian-Americans. They no longer can afford to live here,” Mr. Newlin said.
He pointed to the Avalon Bay development at the former Princeton hospital on Witherspoon Street, where 20 percent of the 280-unit project is supposed to be affordable housing.
Yet Newlin said “no one that has been indigenous to Princeton, no one whose grandfather and grandmother helped build infrastructure of this town, no one who has been educated here through the history of Princeton for many, many years will be able to afford not one unit in Avalon Bay.
Combined in the two towns, there are 906 units of affordable and low income housing that can be either owned or rented. Income guidelines vary by agency.
Princeton Community Housing has 463 rental units at sites that include Griggs Farm, Elm Court, Princeton Community Village and Harriet Bryan House. The Princeton Housing Authority, responsible for managing 236 units in the towns, has no minimum income requirement.
Peacock said the time that it takes to get into affordable housing can vary depending on whether it is a rental or for purchase unit. PCH executive director Edward Truscelli said his agency has a wait list of 400 to 500 people. Ben Colbert, a member of PCH’s board, expressed concern that the economic downturn is eroding the diversity of Princeton. “They’re no longer the kinds of jobs that were here and available,” he said.
Mr. Newlin echoed a similar concern.
”The world is changing, the demographics of the entire United States is changing and Princeton . . . is going backwards,” he said, “because we are moving out everybody that means fabric. And talk about cultural diversity, cultural diversity in this town is almost a thing of the past.”
