FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, February 12, 2016

 



Services for the State’s Housing Recovery Programs Will Remain Available to Eligible Program Participants 

 

Trenton, NJ – With 99 percent of all Sandy-impacted homeowners in the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) Program now with signed grant agreements and more than 2,650 homes rebuilt through the program, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs today announced that it is consolidating its existing Housing Recovery Centers (HRCs) into two regional HRCs in Freehold, Monmouth County, and Newark, Essex County, as of May 1.

The consolidation will allow the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to focus more of its recovery resources on construction and project completion, which are the predominant needs of homeowners in the RREM Program and LMI Homeowners Rebuilding Program. Fewer than 50 homeowners in the LMI Program have yet to sign a grant agreement and 99 percent of all homeowners in the program will have entered the construction phase by the May 1 consolidation.

Homeowners will still be able to work with their housing advisors by telephone and in person at the regional HRCs in Freehold and Newark. For those who are unable to travel to the regional centers in Freehold or Newark, DCA has identified meeting locations in Atlantic City and Toms River where homeowners can meet with their housing advisors closer to their homes on an as-needed basis and, where necessary, the housing advisors will come to a homeowner’s house. Also, DCA will continue to hold Housing Recovery Information Sessions in hard hit communities, including those in Atlantic and Ocean counties. The information sessions are open to all eligible RREM and LMI Program homeowners to provide them one-on-one attention with any housing recovery questions or issues they might have. The information sessions have been well-received, with nearly 2,000 homeowners having attended the sessions since they started in October 2014.

“Once homeowners sign their grant agreement to begin construction, their need shifts away from the Housing Recovery Center to their builder and project manager. However, we want to assure people participating in RREM and the LMI Program that they will still be able to contact our knowledgeable housing advisors, who have been so instrumental in helping them move forward in their recovery from Sandy,” said DCA Commissioner Charles A. Richman.

Additionally, DCA’s Sandy Constituent Services Office is another resource homeowners can utilize if they have questions about their recovery effort. While their primary contacts for questions about their rebuilding project remain their project manager and housing advisor, if they need further assistance, DCA’s Sandy Constituent Services Office has experienced representatives who can address their questions. The office can be reached by calling (609) 292-3750 or (609) 633-1328 or by emailing sandy.recovery@dca.nj.gov.

Furthermore, DCA administers the Sandy Recovery Housing Counselor Program, which offers free housing counseling services on a wide array of housing-related issues to Sandy-impacted homeowners and renters who lived at the time of the storm in one of the nine counties the federal government designated as most impacted by Sandy (Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union). The counseling services include foreclosure prevention, homelessness prevention, and reverse mortgage/home equity conversion mortgage among other topics. Contact information for organizations providing the counseling services and their locations in the most impacted counties can be obtained at www.renewjerseystronger.org/renters/sandy-recovery-housing-counseling-program/.

“The State remains fully committed to housing recovery, and each day is working to help people complete their projects,” Commissioner Richman said.

Housing Advisors have contacted all RREM and LMI Program participants in Atlantic and Ocean counties to inform them of the upcoming HRC consolidation.

The Regional Housing Recovery Centers that will continue to operate after the May 1 consolidation are:

Essex County
2 Gateway, 9th Floor
Newark, NJ
Monday – Friday, 9 am to 6 pm.

Monmouth County
3 Paragon Way, Suite 150
Freehold, NJ
Monday – Friday, 9 am to 6 pm.

The RREM Program is the largest of the housing recovery programs launched by the State following Superstorm Sandy. The program provides grants to Sandy-impacted homeowners to cover rebuilding costs up to $150,000 that are not funded by insurance, FEMA assistance, U.S. Small Business Administration loans, or other sources.

The LMI Homeowners Rebuilding Program provides reconstruction, rehabilitation and elevation assistance to Sandy-impacted homeowners of limited financial means whose storm-damaged primary residence is located in one of the nine most impacted counties as determined by the federal government. The program aims to provide assistance to those LMI homeowners who did not apply to the RREM Program, and includes a portion of funding specifically set aside for owners of manufactured housing units/mobile homes.

CONTACT:
Lisa Ryan
(609) 292-6055