Affordable options nearly nonexistent throughout county
‘A challenge right now is that when you have no overnight homeless shelter, no affordable housing, no adequate transitional housing, people who would be experiencing poverty somewhere else are in crisis here. There is no safety net to fall back on.’
–Tyler Keene, director, The Branches
Cape May County, with its multimillion-dollar homes, few year-round rentals and no homeless shelters is not haven for those seeking shelter, who often find themselves in long-term crisis situations.
That point was driven home during a forum on affordable housing Feb. 5 held via Zoom by the Cape May County Regular Democratic Organization.
Yvonne Sullivan, director of Family Promise, which serves homeless families with children, said affordable housing in the county is “pretty much nonexistent for our young people.”
She said younger residents finish their education and leave the county. At this time, 13 affordable housing properties exist in the county with six properties exclusively for senior citizens, one for those suffering mental health issues or another disability and the remaining six properties for low- or moderate-income families.
“The problem is that the wait lists are three to five years long, there is nowhere for anybody to go,” Sullivan said. “We’ve had people placed in a low- or moderate-income unit and then they get kicked out because somebody made a little bit of extra overtime and they went over the income limit, and they would become homeless again.”
Family Promise screens clients for drug use and requires employment. Normally, shelter is provided for 90 days but because of rental prices, the stays are being extended.
New Jersey has the seventh-most-expensive rents in the nation, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
“In order for someone to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment, they have to make a minimum of at least $33.50 per hour and that requires 95 hours needed at work, so that’s over two full-time people that need to work,” Sullivan said.
The conversion of year-round rentals to Airbnbs has worsened the long-term rental situation, she said. According to Stockton University, Cape May County had a little fewer than 400 Airbnb rentals before the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-23 but now has almost 800.
Since Family Promise can’t find places to rent for its clients, it is moving in the direction of providing credit and housing counseling and possibly having clients apply for USDA loans to become homeowners, Sullivan said.
Harvey Roach, chairman of the organization’s Leadership Committee, hosted the session. He said his committee last month reached out to the 16 municipalities in the county asking for their number of affordable housing units.
Avalon, Cape May Point, Dennis Township, Sea Isle City, West Cape May, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest all stated they had zero affordable housing units, Roach said, adding that Lower Township, Upper Township, Woodbine and Stone Harbor did not respond to the committee.
Cape May stated it has 204 affordable housing units including Victorian Towers, Middle Township has 134 units, North Wildwood has 105 units, Ocean City has 42 units with “109 units on the drawing board,” and West Wildwood has 306 units, for a total of 791 units, he said.
“This is something you that you hear in all conversations about home ownership, ‘My kids can’t afford to buy a house where they grew up,’” Roach said. “The cost and the shortage of affordable housing units impacts not only those who grew up here looking to purchase or rent a home but our veteran population, those with disabilities or special needs, our environment, and those who may want to downsize and remain in the community but not necessarily in a 55-plus or assisted living environment. And often overlooked but crucial in our economy, many people who make up the workforce in Cape May County cannot afford to live here.”
He said an effort is under way in the Legislature to improve the affordable housing program in the state. Senate bill S-50, under the sponsorship of Sen. Troy Singleton and Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, Democratic deputy speaker of the Assembly, would replace the Council on Affordable Housing and increase the number of affordable housing units people of low- and moderate-income can afford.
According to Singleton, the state needs an additional 200,000 affordable housing units.
Roach said the homeless problem in Cape May County has “virtually exploded over the past few years.” He said the county’s seasonal economy contributes to homelessness as well as an increase in homelessness veterans.
“All these factors have combined to strain both the official infrastructure in a county with no overnight homeless shelter as well as the non-profit infrastructure that works diligently daily to assist the growing, often-misunderstood segment of our population,” Roach said.
He said there other counties in the region work in partnership with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and municipal governments to construct housing.
“According to a Cape May County official I spoke with last month, the county is restricted by HUD in using these funds for housing vouchers only,” Roach said.
Middle Township has legislated that tents in the woods occupied by homeless persons are illegal, he said.
Former state Senate president Steve Sweeney said when he was growing up, it was customary for a person to dedicate 25 percent to 30 percent of their income to housing but now costs far exceed those percentages. He said some towns are in denial of the need for affordable housing and almost anyone could find themselves homeless.
“I just wish people would recognize that affordable housing is not an ugly word, it’s not like ‘there goes the neighborhood.’ It’s just people that aren’t as fortunate as others that want to have their kids go to good school systems, they want to move forward and live in quality neighborhoods,” Sweenry said.
Jacqueline Jones, executive director of the Vineland Housing Authority, also contracted with public housing in Cape May, Ocean City and Buena through shared service agreements, said those in need of affordable housing may be families that did not have the same opportunities as others.
“They are just in a different situation. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people, it just means that they have different jobs and different incomes,” she said.
Monthly rent for one person in a household in this county with a moderate income of $53,678 at an affordable rate would be $1,342 per month, while a person considered low income should have rent of $838 and very low income with a rate of $503, Jones said.
She said the category of extremely low income is seen in public housing, which involves a “deep subsidy.” Section 8 housing uses a voucher, allowing residents to pay 30 percent of their income toward the rent, according to Jones.
“The issue here is there is only a certain number of these vouchers and almost every waiting list is closed,” she said.
Jones said development of public housing from the federal government stopped in the 1980s. The newest type of development is through tax credits, with developers financially backing the construction, she said.
Jones said Habitat for Humanity focuses on families that are earning 80 percent or less of the area’s median income. She said the challenge is to find a family that fits that income category that can afford a mortgage, the property taxes and the homeowner’s insurance.
The Branches director Tyler Keene said the organization serves breakfast and lunch and provides showers and personal care items and clothing for homeless persons, as well as operating a food pantry and a mobile grocery delivery program that serves families living in motels. He called Cape May County “incredibly under-resourced.”
“A challenge right now is that when you have no overnight homeless shelter, no affordable housing, no adequate transitional housing, people who would be experiencing otherwise general poverty somewhere else are in crisis here,” he said. “There is no safety net to fall back on.”
“It’s hard when you’re first homeless and there’s no place to go and that short term experience of crisis extends in Cape May County into chronic homelessness very easily and so that’s what we are trying to course correct every single day,” Keene continued.
He said 82 percent of The Branches’ clients come from a 10-mile radius of their location in Rio Grande and it is our neighbors who are suffering.
Keene said he worked for a large non-profit organization before moving back to this county and his current position is the most difficult job he has held. This county lacks social service programs available elsewhere in the state, he said.
“We need help, we are drowning,” he said.
The Branches helped a 90-year-old couple that were experiencing homelessness for the first time and were living in their car, Keene said.
He said there is no legal place to sleep in this county for a homeless person.
“We are in need of all the help and support that we can possibly get,” Keene said. “We are in need of our community understanding the problems here and that people experiencing homelessness in our county have no real likelihood for progression like in some other places.”
Food insecurity for children in Cape May County exceeds Camden County at more than 17 percent.
“We have over 3,000 kids that are food-insecure in our county,” he said. “Cape May County is so much more than the Cape Mays and the Avalons, there are so many people experiencing crisis here, it’s going to take a village to help lift people up together.”
By JACK FICHTER/Ocean City Sentinel