Our Search for Housing, by Eamon Bencivengo

Last Wednesday I hopped in a car with a housing realtor and my colleague Jenai Gaccione to begin a tour of a ranch home for sale in Bergen County.  New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs and Housing Mortgage Finance Agency have partnered to create a program to provide new living units for 600 special needs individuals emerging from recently closed state-run developmental centers.  In treating special needs individuals with respect by working to integrate them into local communities, the program provides significant financing to housing developers who can acquire and rehabilitate a one floor ranch home into a special needs group home.  Furthermore, the program specifies that each home should provide enough beds and living space to accommodate four special needs adults, while the home itself should be in a town which has a sizable municipal housing trust fund which can be used to offset the financing costs shouldered by the state.  Thus, as we drove up Route 17 to tour our first home in Ridgewood, we reviewed the requirements which would make this home a potential future group home; wide hallways and doorways, a spacious kitchen and living room, four bedrooms, and a large bathroom to name a few.  As we arrived at the house we were met by Tom Toronto, Bergen County’s United Way President, along with two representatives from the ARC which would provide the care to the future special needs residents of the home.  After entering the home, we were delighted to find its potential to be rehabilitated into a group home as it satisfied nearly all of our requirements.  Some further discussions with the service provider, rehab construction work, and application filing are the only requirements needed to create a new home for four special needs individuals!