‘We are winning this war’

A New Jersey Strategy

on Problem Properties

BY JACQUELINE HERSHIPS

This tangle of liens, mortgages and legal claims is a major, relatively unacknowledged source of urban blight.

For all these reasons, HANDS decided to make “problem properties” the focus of its work.

“We approached the issue from a number of angles,” explained Patrick Morrissy, HANDS executive director.  “First, our friends in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Mid-Atlantic District office convinced us to target our work to defined neighborhoods. Next, we met with community leaders, crime watch groups, and block associations to find out which properties they thought were having the most pervasive effect. Our board and staff decided that we would focus on turning around as many of those ‘pivotal eyesores’ as possible.”

“As we began to track every vacant, problem property in the three target neighborhoods,” Morrissy continued, “it became obvious that, without systemic change, HANDS could not have a real impact on this problem.” It also became clear that if HANDS couldn’t unlock the encumbered titles to these targeted properties, redevelopment was impossible.

Ratcheting up the effort, HANDS secured the services of housing and community development expert, Wayne Meyer, a lawyer, accountant and real estate Sir Galahad who left the private sector to tackle the far greater challenge of rescuing cities.

In the three years since Meyer signed on with HANDS, he has successfully untangled the maze of liens and judgments that were tying up titles on dozens of properties. This, in turn, allowed HANDS to rehabilitate 40 of the most visible problem properties.

One of them, on Princeton Street in Orange, was rehabbed and sold to first-time homeowner Charise A. Simmons, a 27-year-old Seton Hall graduate and single mother working as a Family Service Specialist with the Division of Youth and Family Services.

Over the next two to three years, HANDS plans to redevelop 50 to 60 more, which will bring its total up to 150 rehabilitated properties since its inception in 1986.

The goal of systemic change required a comprehensive approach. It involved assisting the community to understand the problem and advocate for change, while working with city hall to more effectively clear titles.

Within the three target neighborhoods, every vacant problem property was researched. Sharing the research with city hall and community leaders helped make problem properties a citywide priority. However, city hall claimed its hands were tied by existing state law and that, without legislative change, properties would continue to languish, despite their best efforts.

With legislation, then, a priority, HANDS joined forces with the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey – working to pass the Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act. The network (www.hcdnnj.org) is a statewide association of more than 250 nonprofit affordable housing and community development corporations, individuals and other organizations that support the creation of housing and economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income community residents.

According to Meyer, “This law will dramatically reduce the time it takes to get a nuisance, problem property in the hands of someone who will rehabilitate it. Time is our enemy in this struggle, and this bill is the answer.”  The bill passed the State Assembly earlier this year 38-0. It is expected to pass the Senate and secure the Governor’s signature in November, capping a sustained, two-year struggle for passage.