In an effort to clear up the misconceptions regarding the “fairshare” that the City of Perth Amboy has exceeded in regards to low and affordable income housing; I would like to clear this notion with undisputable facts. When the Gelber building on Stockton Street and the Sofield building on Huntington Street were torn down – that action eliminated 198 total units. Since H.U.D. had changed its prior guidelines on one for one replacement, we opted for less density and replaced those high-rise buildings with townhouse structures that included a total of 34 townhouses, 18 and 16, respectively on two sites. The Stockton Street property was sold to the Public Schools to build a new Number 10 School, later renamed Richardson School. We purchased property from Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church to build replacement for Stockton Street and rebuilt on the Penn Street property.

There was also concern that the Housing Authority would be overloading the city’s resources such as police, fire, trash pick-up and the school system. Obviously it is not commonly known that the Housing Authority has for quite some time picked up its own garbage and plowed the snow on our property. I don’t see how these 70 replacement units on the Delaney Homes property could negatively impact the School system since we would be renting at least the 29 apartments to families in our waiting list who are current Perth Amboy residents. A good majority of the 41 tax credit units would also be current residents of Perth Amboy. In essence, their children are already in the system.

At the current time we have 360 families living in Public Housing. Only one of those families is on Welfare. Of the 800 families we house with Section 8 Vouchers, only 25 are on Welfare.

The Housing Authority has for years provided financial, educational, and life skill training for our clients and the general public to help our families enhance their lives.

Dorothy Carty-Daniel

Chairperson Housing

Authority of the City of

Perth Amboy