So, last week we gave our run down on building more apartments in the City. Periodically, the Council has been asking for a list of vacant and/or abandoned homes. Code Enforcement has come in and given an update. The list is difficult to draw up since many times owners of properties in question will come in with a last-minute payment.
When you have abandoned/vacant homes it downgrades the neighborhood. So, wouldn’t it make more sense to make those properties habitable? There are homes that are abandoned/vacant for a considerable amount of time. It’s time for the banks that own those properties to draw out a plan to get those homes back in shape so that residents looking for housing can buy them.
PRAHD has many programs. One of them has been their carpentry apprenticeship in conjunction with New Jersey Carpenters Network.
Maybe the City of Perth Amboy, along with banks who take over these properties, should contact local home improvement chain stores (such as Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) to help rehab these homes. In tehis way, First Time Homebuyers or those who are seeking housing can have some sort of opportunity to buy them.
In the time that it takes to build new properties, you could rehab at least 20 of those old properties and have people occupying them already.
I have heard about programs where there are seniors who many not want to live in apartments. A list was created of seniors who wanted to live in a house instead. They could live with others and be matched up that way, so they could share living expenses and companionship and still be independent. They can have more freedom and less structure than in living in a senior apartment complex where they have restrictions.
By the way, I think that maybe more administrators should take public transportation or walk for a week to see how it is to get around town without a car.
Every so often, I look at websites that have foreclosed properties and I like it when they have virtual tours that shows you the interior of the dwellings. On tax sales, some properties are listed over and over again, but eventually some things got to give.
One website is: http://nationalsharedhousing.org
I would be curious to know why the banks that have repossessed those properties let them sit for so long without taking any action to maintain at least the outside of the homes. They are a haven for feral cats. The worst is when there’s a snowstorm and those properties do not have the snow/ice removed from their sidewalks.
If everyone gets on the same page, this could be mutually beneficial to the banks, the City, and people in need of housing.
We need an infusion of other people coming into Amboy because of its rich history. We’ve had books, videos, newspaper articles and been spotlighted on national TV, the movies in regards to our rich history. This is what we need to focus on.
Those people who come to Williamsburg are VISITORS who spend THEIR MONEY in Williamsburg, but don’t live there.
How many people in surrounding towns don’t even know of our beautiful Waterfront. Let’s not hide it.
I’m going to go over something I mentioned before in a previous editorial. When Front Street was repaved, it was by a contractor that was from out of town. One of the workers asked me if those homes on Front Street were summer homes. He was surprised when I told him that those homes were year round. So, they thought that Perth Amboy was a resort. Let’s not forget, at one time, it was.
C.M. & K.M.
