Housing Applications - The final barrier

By Eamon Bencivengo

Applications.  Commonly described as burdensome and tedious, they represent the final barrier blocking admittance to school or the awarding of monetary prizes.  While my young age has not yet afforded me a wealth of experience, in regards to applications, I have completed enough over the course of my twenty three years.  From college and graduate school entrance applications, to scholarship and loan applications, I long considered myself a veteran of the application process.  Such a consideration quickly disappeared this past week as I have begun to fill out my first application to receive a government grant for housing construction.  Working with Shari DePalma, the executive director of our partner the Madeline Corporation, I have been slowly, but steadily filling out the grant application for New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs HOME Program dollars for our upcoming Crescent Commons Homeownership project.  Unlike my college entrance application, I have been pooling together site surveys, environmental reviews, zoning resolutions, and tax maps to assist me in answering the plethora of required application fields.  These fields range from the number of water mains on the site to the square footage of each unit.  Furthermore, I have been gathering the resumes of our engineer, architect, attorney, and contractor to put into the application.  Undoubtedly, I am muddling through the application process as I must ask Shari and Tom Toronto question after question.  However, with every question I ask and every answer I receive my muddled step turns into a stride as I become more educated about the affordable housing development process.  I know that soon enough, just as I became an expert in college applications, I will become an expert in building homes people can afford.