BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
Long Branch LONG BRANCH – A church leader called a meeting last week for people affected by the redevelopment process in Long Branch
Minister Claudius Raphael hosted “Knowing Your Rights,” a forum held Sept. 16 at the Second Baptist Church on Liberty Street, as an opportunity for residents to learn their rights.
“I want to educate the community and members of the church,” said Raphael after the meeting.
Word of the meeting, however, had not gotten around and only about a dozen people attended.
Presenters at the meeting were Patience O’Connor, managing director for developer Broadway Arts Center (BAC), Elisabeth Cook, program coordinator for the Long Branch Office of Community & Economic Development; and Michael R. Weber, home loan consultant for Countrywide Home Loans.
The forum was called by Raphael as one of the requirements for earning his doctorate, but he said it is just the first of several forums he plans to hold at the church.
“So what happens to the people [displaced by redevelopment]?” Cook asked those at the meeting.
Just about everyone in a redevelopment zone will be displaced and forced to find a new residence, she said.
And that is where she and her department come in.
Cook presented a Long Branch municipal relocation policy handbook titled “Your Rights and Benefits if You Must Move Due to Actions of the Municipal Government or its Representatives” at the meeting.
“Every case is different,” Cook said. “Everyone will get some kind of assistance.
“Many people already relocated have found that their situation got better,” she added.
Cook explained that her office develops a WRAP (Workable Relocation Assistance Plan), which consists of a survey of questions to define the current status of each resident.
The WRAP is submitted to the state for approval, she said.
Information required for the WRAP includes: how many people live in the household, are there children living in the house, how many rooms are in the house, what are earnings, and several more, according to Cook.
“We have to prove to the state that we know the tenants,” Cook said. “So we write up a WRAP plan to explain whatever your issues are.”
The relocation process does not begin until a resident receives a written negotiation letter from the city offering a just-compensation price to purchase the property, according to Cook, who said each resident will receive a minimum of 90 days’ written notice before being required to move.
In addition to providing help in obtaining a comparable living space, residents may be eligible for additional assistance, including referral to appropriate public and private agencies that may provide services concerning housing financing, employment, health, welfare or legal assistance, Cook said.
There are two kinds of relocation payments available: one to cover the cost of moving and the other to assist in paying for replacement housing.
Cook explained that every displaced person is entitled to a relocation payment to cover the cost of the move, and only eligible homeowners would receive replacement housing payments.
“In order to be eligible for benefits, [residents] need to stay in their property until they get their eligibility letter,” Cook explained. “All assistance is based on what [residents] are paying now.”
O’Connor, managing director for one of the six redevelopment zones in the city, said she has been working with different property and business owners in the downtown Broadway redevelopment zone, a two-block zone that extends from Second to Memorial avenues and from Union Avenue to the north and Belmont Avenue to the south.
Plans call for BAC to raze the existing properties in the 9-acre zone and construct an estimated $180 million entertainment, residential and commercial project with 300 market-rate housing units and 100 affordable-rate housing units.
“There will be displacement,” O’Connor said at the meeting.
But O’Connor said BAC asked people located within the redevelopment if they wanted to stay and become a part of the project.
The best tenants are mom-and-pop stores, according to O’Connor, who said in addition to small businesses, the project will include economic building blocks.
“We have looked at Trader Joe’s, CVS and The Gap,” she said. “But we want a diverse group of retail, diverse tenants and diverse residents. This is an urban area.
“The developers need the community to back this project,” O’Connor added. “In the end, this is your project.”
BAC currently owns 44 properties in the zone and is negotiating with the remaining eight property owners.
Weber, who also spoke at the meeting, said Countywide Home Loans made a commitment two years ago to assist people in getting mortgages who “do not fit into the classic mortgage lender box.”
Weber told the crowd that his company could help some Long Branch residents become home owners.
“We are in the business of helping those who don’t fit into traditional lending guidelines,” Weber said. “My commitment to you is to get you into housing that right now you may deem as unaffordable.”