A judge slammed the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment two weeks ago as “arbitrary, capricious, irrational, and otherwise unreasonable,” when it voted to deny a group’s bid for transitional housing on the city’s west side.
Hudson County Superior Court Judge Jose Fuentes, writing in a 22-page decision, said he was “shocked” at the board’s “shameless capitulation to the bigotry” coming from residents of the community who opposed the housing.
At the same time, it was a victory for Sister Maria Cordis Lamendola and her Hoboken-based House of Faith Church, which had been denied board approval for the housing.
“It’s so gratifying that our judicial system works,” said Lamendola this week. “It’s wonderful to know that we can rely on the courts for truth and justice.” The House of Faith board will meet this week to decide how to proceed with the plans.
But zoning board attorney Dan Becht said the House might face further hurdles despite the victory. “They may not want to go there in light of this opposition,” he said. Becht had been working with the House to find a different site in the city. But that search proved fruitless, and left House of Faith attorney J. Creighton Drury upset. He said that while Becht tried his best, the administration and housing department offered little help.
“You’d think officials would be more caring to reach out and help people,” he said. “We may be left with no alternative but to go to Ege Avenue.” If the group does not choose a site, they lose federal money to renovate and run the housing, he said.
The board has the option to appeal the decision. Becht has asked the city’s law department to review the decision.
When reached last week, Zoning Board chairman Steve Kalcanides wasn’t sure which way the board would go.
“That’s a little touchy situation,” he said. “There’d probably have to be some discussion about it.”
Step by step
House of Faith, a Hoboken-based group, began in 1994 under Sister Maria Cordis. The House offers a “step-by-step” outreach program that provides job training to homeless people and tries to reintegrate them back into society.
In 1997, the group received a $1 million Housing and Urban Development grant to renovate a home for transitional housing. In 1999, the All Nations Lutheran Church agreed to lease the second and third floors of the Ege Avenue building to the House of Faith. After being denied initially for their proposal by the board, the House sought a variance in the zoning.
Upset that the three-story building at 244 Ege Ave. would house about seven formerly homeless tenants at one time, may drive down property values and create problems for the area, residents organized a protest group: “RATH” (Residents Against Transitional Housing), and vowed to fight the plan.
Said resident planning expert John Leoncovallo, who was quoted in the decision, “I don’t think you can guarantee all the time that what you get there is going to be entirely 100 percent ‘nonproblematic,’ I mean that there may be some people there that have some social problems that deal with drugs, that deal with alcohol, and you can’t control those people 100 percent of the time especially from the testimony I hear is that weekends there may not be supervision there….and who knows what problems are that will occur?” Drury and the House of Faith argued that all of the residents would be selected from the eight-month “step-by-step” program, and would spend from 6 to 18 months in the housing.
Objections to the housing came from several officials, including west side Councilwoman Mary Donnelly, Freeholder William O’Dea, and the mayor’s office.
It’s unclear what will happen now, said Lamendola
“We are going to go forward,” she said. “And you’re going to want to know what that means, and I can’t tell you. I don’t know.”