Fulop Administration Breaks Ground on 64 Unit Affordable Residential Project in Greenville
The Dr. Lena Frances Edwards Apartments will include five units for homeless veterans, made possible by millions in city, federal funding
JERSEY CITY – Mayor Steven M. Fulop and city and state officials joined with Genesis Companies today to break ground on the Dr. Lena Frances Edwards Apartments, a five story, 64-unit affordable housing development on Ocean Avenue in Greenville that will include five units for homeless veterans. The project, which consists of 100 percent affordable units, was made possible in part by a $1.5 million grant from the Jersey City Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
“This project truly embodies the Marine Corps philosophy of leaving no one behind,” said Mayor Fulop. “On the one hand, we are investing more than a million dollars in creating new, affordable housing in an area of the city that could significantly benefit from it. And, at the same time, we are taking another step closer to literally ending veteran homelessness in Hudson County.”
The project will include ground-floor commercial, covered parking and four residential floors above. Of the 64 units, five units will be reserved for homeless veterans and all will be affordable to a range of incomes up to 60 percent of Area Median Income. This sustainable, Energy Star building will feature 12 one-bedroom, 36 two- bedroom, and 16 three-bedroom units. A full array of social services will be offered to all residents, including financial and budget planning, health and nutritional education and preventative medical screenings.
The development was initially conceived by Genesis Companies and the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA) to eliminate blight in this redevelopment area and to leverage prior City and State investments in the immediate vicinity. In order to accomplish this vision, the JCRA and Genesis worked to remediate significant environmental conditions on the site and raised funds from the City’s CDBG program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The City and the State provided significant support to fund the development of the project. The City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund committed $1.5 million and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency provided $15.6 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits, which Bank of America will purchase to provide construction financing.
“Genesis is proud to partner with Mayor Fulop and the JCRA,” said Genesis founder Karim Hutson. “This administration has shown tremendous leadership in the effort to deliver more affordable and veterans’ housing to the residents of Jersey City. Even with myriad environmental and funding challenges, this public-private partnership has delivered on its commitment to develop quality, sustainable affordable housing.”
As Jersey City grows, with nearly 10,000 units currently under construction and another 16,000 approved, the Fulop administration has made creating more affordable housing a priority and Jersey City now leads the state in the number of new affordable units. Shortly after taking office, the Fulop administration created the city’s first-ever Affordable Housing Trust Fund policy to establish criteria for and incentivize the development of affordable housing. And last year, Jersey City completed its first-ever housing assessment with Columbia University and NYU and subsequently used that data to craft the first-ever affordable housing plan in Jersey City’s history.
Together, these strategies have proven remarkably successful, as in the last three years alone, the Fulop administration has invested more than $6 million of Affordable Housing Trust Fund dollars and nearly matched the 1,255 affordable units created or preserved during the entire eight years of the previous administration. And construction is underway on two separate 80/20 mixed-income projects in downtown – the first in three decades– which will bring 165 units of affordable housing to the city’s waterfront district.
Ending veteran homelessness has also been a top priority of the Fulop administration. In 2014, Mayor Fulop, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2003, signed on to First Lady Michelle Obama’s Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. A 2015 “Point-in-Time Count” of Hudson County’s homeless veteran population found that there were still 45 homeless veterans on the street or in shelters in Hudson County. Since then, the Fulop administration has made significant progress, as this project will bring the total number of veteran- or veteran-priority housing to be built under Mayor Fulop to 34 units.
All media inquiries should be directed to Jennifer Morrill, Press Secretary to Mayor Steven M. Fulop at jenniferm@jcnj.org or 201-376-0699. ////