BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

Ft. Monmouth is set to close by 2011. There are many buildings at Fort Monmouth that could provide housing for the homeless and for low- to moderate-income residents, according to advocates for affordable housing.

Many organizations are advocating for some of that housing and a few of their representatives attend every meeting of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA).

One of those who spoke at the Jan. 17 FMERPA meeting was the Rev. Jane Price, a member of New Creations in Christ (NCIC), one of the advocacy groups.

Price, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Long Branch, said after the meeting that NCIC is trying to take a leadership role in joining together churches and agencies that have an interest in homelessness and affordable housing.

"It's a vital issue and a very complex process," she said, explaining that at this point, NCIC is mostly in an advocacy role.

"It [NCIC] came out of a kind of Christian community, but we don't mean to be discriminatory in any way and we wouldn't discriminate in terms of the people we serve," Price, of Matawan, said.

New Creations in Christ launched the affordable housing initiative in September when more than 200 people attended their first event in the sanctuary at St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Freehold Township.

At that meeting the coalition was introduced in an effort to motivate community members to address the affordable housing crisis in Monmouth County.

Currently based in Shrewsbury, the nonprofit group has banded together to address the lack of affordable and low- and moderate-income housing through advocacy and the acquisition of affordable housing.

One of the few options left in the county is surplus property at Fort Monmouth, which is scheduled to close in a few years.

FMERPA must comply with the Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Act of 1994 and solicit notice of interest in surplus property from homelessness assistance providers in the county as well as eligible public benefit conveyance entities from state, local governments and qualified nonprofits.

On Sept. 9, FMERPA published a solicitation for Notice of Interest (NOI) proposals for designated surplus property at the fort.

There are two categories of NOIs. One is for homeless assistance. Those NOIs may be submitted by any state, county or local government agency or private nonprofit organization that provides or proposes to provide services to homeless persons and/or families living in the county.

The second category, public benefit conveyance NOIs, are for all other groups that are interested in surplus property for public use. That designation would include things like affordable housing, day care centers and senior housing.

Both NOIs have to be submitted by March 8.

According to FMERPA guidelines, once the NOIs are received, they will be distributed to various review committees for review, evaluation and recommendation for consideration. The FMERPA board will decide which NOIs will be incorporated into the reuse plan.

The Rev. Susan Mamchak, First Assembly of God Church in Shrewsbury, and the NCIC executive director, said that when the group talked to other groups interested in submitting an NOI, it became apparent that a task force was needed so their efforts would not be duplicated.

"There were 16 other groups that were interested in putting in an NOI. Instead of duplication of effort, the task force was designed to find a point of common ground," she said, adding that the task force has met three times.

She noted that the task force will meet again on Friday in a work session to make sure the requirements for NOIs are met.

"We want to make sure that we are not being eliminated because somebody wrote it up wrong," she said, adding, "We tried to make sure that people realize there is a time limit and that we are not competitors. We sat down in a room one day and said why don't we do it together with some order."

Mamchak said that Rick Harrison, deputy director of FMERPA, came to one of the meetings and provided information on the best way to handle the NOIs, and that Rosemarie Estaphan, a public member of FMERPA and chair of the Social Services Advisory Committee to the FMERPA board, has been more than generous.

"We are delighted that they have been so forthcoming on helping us make sure that the task force gets all of the material that we need. They have been very generous with their time," she said.

Lynn F. Miller, director of the Monmouth County Department of Human Services, said last Friday that according to last year's statistics on homelessness, the department was able to identify 1,418 people who were homeless in Monmouth County.

"That's a definite number," she said, "but that figure may be low because it doesn't count the hidden homeless."

She explained that the information was gathered by circulating fliers throughout the county asking agencies to direct homeless people to one of four sites around the county where information was being gathered.

They also counted people who are already in homeless placements and dispatched a team of social workers throughout the county to do a point in time survey for one day.

"We don't know what the number is for this year yet, but we don't expect it to go down," Miller said.

She noted there are a number of reasons why people are homeless, but one of the biggest is that New Jersey has the second highest cost of rental housing in the country.

Another cause is the revitalization of towns, which forced the closing of boarding homes and rooming houses. In addition, residential health care facilities are no longer in existence.

"They were sold because the properties became so valuable," she said.

In addition, the closing of Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital put people with mental illness out into the communities, Miller said.

She added that there is a growing number of working poor homeless because of a shortage of workforce housing. The average rent for a two- bedroom apartment in Monmouth County is more than $1,100 a month. That requires an income of over $32,000 a year.

She said there are county agencies that are dealing with the issue of affordable housing, but it is very difficult to develop the amount of housing that is needed.

"People have to adjust to living with lower-income people. They should think about the fact that when their child graduates from college, they won't be able to afford to live here. Our own children can't afford to stay."

Pamela Ferdinand, director of the Monmouth County Division of Social Services, said in an article in this newspaper last summer that the perception of poverty must change.

"Many blame or fear people that are poor. This is especially evident when communities are asked to provide affordable housing to populations other than seniors."