State Department Of Community Affairs To Close Some Sandy Recovery Centers

by Patricia A. Miller

The Christie administration is closing five of the nine Superstorm Sandy recovery centers scattered throughout the state in what Department of Community Affairs calls a ”consolidation” effort, two and a half years after the monster storm roared into New Jersey.

Five of the nine Housing Recovery Centers (HRCs) will close on May 1. Although some Sandy victims might disagree, the DCA said in a release that ”most” of those in the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation program - more commonly known as RREM - are now in the construction phase.

Staffs at the Bergen, Hudson, and Union HRCs will be consolidated at the Essex Housing Recovery Center because it’s a main transportation hub in Newark. Middlesex HRC staff will go to the Monmouth HRC, and Cape May HRC staff will be reassigned to the Atlantic HRC. The Ocean HRC, the largest recovery center, will remain open.

“The HRC consolidation does not mean services will no longer be available in Bergen, Cape May, Hudson, Middlesex and Union counties,” the DCA said. ” Plans are underway to identify established locations in each of the five counties where Housing Advisors can go on an as needed basis to assist RREM participants who cannot, for whatever reason, travel to the consolidated HRCs.”

The service will also be extended to applicants of the LMI Homeowners Rebuilding Program who live in the affected counties once they are approved for the program. The LMI Program provides rebuilding assistance to Sandy-impacted homeowners of low- to moderate-income.

The DCA will continue to hold information sessions in hard-hit communities, including those in the five counties. The information sessions are open to eligible RREM homeowners and are designed to provide individualized answers to homeowners’ questions during all stages in the RREM process. The sessions will also be open to eligible applicants of the LMI Homeowners Rebuilding Program.

“While we are aligning our resources to reflect the predominant construction needs that currently exist among homeowners in our largest housing recovery program, we want to assure people participating in both the RREM Program and LMI Program who aren’t yet at the construction phase that the services they need will continue to be provided,” said DCA Acting Commissioner Charles Richman.

The DCA said of the more than 8,000 eligible homeowners participating in the RREM Program, nearly 7,000 have signed their grant agreement.

“Once homeowners sign their grant agreement to begin construction, their need shifts away from the Housing Recovery Center to their builder and RREM Project Manager,” the release states. ”Additionally, the RREM Program was streamlined almost a year ago to allow program participants to mail in their documents and work remotely with their Housing Advisors, lessening the need to visit a Housing Recovery Center.”

The five Housing Recovery Centers being consolidated handle less than 10 percent of the remaining RREM cases where an applicant still needs to sign a grant agreement. For example, there are 4, 12 and 19 unsigned grant agreement cases at the Union, Middlesex and Hudson HRCs respectively.

Additionally, the DCA recently launched the Sandy Recovery Housing Counselor Program, which offers free housing counseling services on a wide array of housing-related issues to Sandy-impacted homeowners and renters who lived in one of the nine most impacted counties.

The counseling services include foreclosure prevention, homelessness prevention, and reverse mortgage/home equity conversion mortgage among other topics. Contact information for organizations providing the counseling services and their locations in the most impacted counties can be obtained at www.renewjerseystronger.org/renters/sandy-recovery-housing-counseling-program/.

The four Housing Recovery Centers that will continue to operate after May 1 are:

Ocean County

750 Vassar Avenue, Suite 1

Lakewood, NJ

Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Atlantic County

500 Scarborough Drive, Suite 101

Egg Harbor Township, NJ

Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Monmouth County

3 Paragon Way, Suite 150

Freehold, NJ

Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Essex County

2 Gateway, 9th Floor

Newark, NJ

Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.