Residents protest rent hikes at Stephen Manor, Vita Gardens
Unclear whether increases will affect those without gov't subsidies
Residents of the Stephen Manor and Vita Gardens housing developments attended Wednesday night’s council meeting to protest impending rent increases — but according to officials, it is unclear if any of the complexes’ residents will have to pay the increases themselves.
Both facilities were recently purchased by Vitus Group, a Manhattan-based firm that specializes in rehabilitation of affordable housing. Both were constructed in the early 1970s and are home largely to residents whose rent is subsidized by Section 8. Some families — about 16 out of 170 — pay full rent without any subsidies, city manager Terence Reidy said last night.
Residents received a letter on Sept. 21 saying monthly rents would increase to $950 per one-bedroom unit; $1250 per two-bedroom unit; $1600 per three-bedroom unit; and $1900 per four-bedroom unit.
Currently, a two-bedroom unit is $966, one resident said at last night’s council meeting, and a three-bedroom unit is $1,100.
Vitus Group is completing more than $7 million of repairs to the structures, and Edgewood Management is taking over day-to-day operations on site, said Scott Langan, a representative of Vitus Group.
According to both Reidy and Langan, families being assisted by Section 8 and other government subsidies will not be affected by the rent increase, as they will continue to pay 30 percent of their income. But it is unclear what will happen to the 16 households in market units who pay their whole rent themselves.
Langan said those families “haven’t been benefiting” from government subsidies, “but we wouldn’t be charging them more than 30 percent of their adjusted income.”
He added the only reason anyone’s rates will increase is if they were not accurately reporting their income previously.
“The only cases where I could see [increases in rent] being an issue is if their income happened to be under-reported in the past,” Langan said. “Because of all the renovations and the requirements we go through with the state, we have to go through a pretty strict screening process with asking for tax returns. That’s the only example of someone saying, ‘My rent is going from $700 to $1,000.'”
Reidy is still looking into the changes and how the 16 market-rate families will be affected, he said. He will soon meet with Tyrone Garrett, the acting director of the Asbury Park Housing Authority, to “get to the bottom of” the situation, he said today.
“I’ll get to the heart of it. If something’s going on that’s negatively affecting our residents that we need to address, we’ll address it,” Reidy said.
FEEDBACK FROM RESIDENTS
Katherine Clay, 60, and her son Michael Clay, 35, have lived in Vita Gardens for 38 years, Ms. Clay said in an interview last night. Ms. Clay is on unemployment right now after having worked in retail for years. Mr. Clay works part-time and is a full-time student at Brookdale Community College. He’s also a war veteran.
“[My mother] has called on numerous occasions asking when the rent is due,” Mr. Clay said. “They said they weren’t sure.”
If the Clays’ rent goes from $966 to $1,250, Mr. Clay will likely have to find an additional job, and lighten his school workload. The two are not eligible for Section 8, Mrs. Clay said.
“$1,250 is a mortgage payment, not rent,” Mr. Clay said. “I can’t see them raising rent when the renovation isn’t even complete yet. Why pay $1,250 in an environment that’s not that good? You have to worry about hearing gunshots.”
The Clays were notified through a letter they received about three weeks ago that their rent would be increased to $1,250 and would have to be paid Nov. 1, Mr. Clay said.
“Rent’s due the first, late fees [start after] Nov. 5 and three days later, we’ll be evicted,” he said.
Malak El [pictured above, right, at microphone], another Vita Gardens resident, said the rent increases amount to “pushing the poor out of the neighborhood to get the rich in.”
“I know you’re going to tear down in a couple of years,” he said. “Instead of making this a community of Asbury Park people who have been living here 20 or 30 years, you’re pushing the people out.”
Rev. John Bradley, president of the Asbury-Neptune Ministerial Alliance, also spoke about the rent increase.
“I think what you [residents] should do is take this concern to your pastor and let them get the congregation out of the sanctuary and into the City Hall to protest these kinds of things,” he said.
