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Acting Governor Oliver Announces Neighborhood Preservation Program Grants Awarded to Communities in the State

07/31/2019

From the Department of Community Affairs:
Acting Governor Oliver Announces Neighborhood Preservation Program Grants Awarded to Communities in the State
Grants Will Help Communities Advance Neighborhood Revitalization Efforts
EAST ORANGE, NJ – Acting Governor Sheila Y. Oliver today visited a long-standing floral shop in East Orange’s downtown business district to announce the award of $2.5 million in Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP) grants to 20 municipalities in New Jersey. The grants will help improve the quality of life for New Jersey residents by assisting communities with their neighborhood revitalization efforts. 

This year marks the first time in 11 years that the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has awarded NPP grants. The grant funding is part of a larger effort by the Murphy Administration to commit more resources to community revitalization programs that focus on small businesses and neighborhood improvement projects.

“We are so proud to reinvigorate the Neighborhood Preservation Program after more than a decade of dormancy,” said Acting Governor Oliver, who serves as DCA Commissioner. “By re-instating funding for this critical initiative, Governor Murphy and I are demonstrating our responsibility as a state to empower and strengthen our communities with the economic tools they need to create an economy that lifts all families and residents. The grant funding is a recognition that the program works and that it routinely reports an excellent return on investment.”

Today’s announcement took place in front of Rupp’s Flowers, a well-established, African-American-owned business that is a pillar in the community. The City of East Orange will use its NPP grant of $125,000 to address blighted properties, explore new housing development opportunities, and improve walkability by rehabbing sidewalks in a target area largely encompassed by the Sussex Area Redevelopment Plan. 

“These Neighborhood Preservation Program funds will give an economic boost to this gateway corridor from Newark into East Orange. Restoration of this neighborhood will help many of our longtime existing businesses, as well as provide incentive for new businesses to make East Orange home,” said East Orange Mayor Ted Green. 

The NPP program provides direct financial and technical assistance to municipalities to conduct activities that strengthen threatened but viable neighborhoods through local planning, community participation, and local investment. Eligible grant activities include community development planning, commercial retail and residential property renovations, code enforcement, historic preservation, support of community/neighborhood organizations, and public facilities improvement.

The goal of the program’s longer-term commitment is to help towns build their local management capacity so that when the grant funding ends, they have the ability and the partnerships to sustain the work and keep making improvements. Municipal grantees had to show a commitment of resources from the neighborhood and municipality, as well as support from community organizations and residents. 

2019 Neighborhood Preservation Program Grant Recipients

MunicipalityCountyAmount
Berlin Township Camden $125,000
Burlington City  Burlington $125,000
Cape May City  Cape May $125,000
East Orange Essex $125,000
Egg Harbor City  Atlantic $125,000
Elizabeth Union $125,000
Garfield  Bergen $125,000
Glassboro Gloucester $125,000
Hammonton  Atlantic $125,000
Keyport Monmouth $125,000
Millville Cumberland $125,000
Mount Holly Burlington $125,000
New Brunswick Middlesex $125,000
Passaic City Passaic $125,000
Paterson Passaic $125,000
Perth Amboy Middlesex $125,000
Phillipsburg Warren $125,000
Pleasantville Atlantic $125,000
Roselle Union $125,000
Woodbury Gloucester $125,000


For more information on NPP, visit https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/offices/np.html.

DCA offers a wide range of programs and services, including energy assistance, housing vouchers, affordable housing production, fire and building safety, community planning and development, local government management and finance, and disaster recovery.