After a day of work in the City Clerk’s office, clerk typist Frank Monte Magno, 62, takes the city’s senior citizen bus home, then walks up to his third floor apartment on Grand Street. Monte Magno was born without hips, and can only walk with the help of crutches. He usually stays in his home until he leaves for work the next day. He said that his efforts to gain an apartment in Hoboken’s handicapped-accessible public housing units have been denied for two years.
“I got hip transplants in the mid-1950s, but the technology wasn’t like it is now,” he said. “I have hips just to keep my pelvis out of my stomach.”
Monte Magno earns a base salary of approximately $41,000 per year. His total annual salary, due to longevity pay, pushes his earnings closer to $45,000, according to city documents. At his salary, Monte Magno doesn’t meet the “very low income” requirement for Hoboken’s numerous senior buildings, and he is slightly above the $41,000 threshold to live in the Hoboken Housing Authority projects. He says he can’t afford a market-rate elevator building.
“This is becoming a real concern for me.” – Frank Monte Magno
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Although he’s lived in the same apartment for 20 years, when Monte Magno was younger, the climb up the stairs was not as much of an issue, he said.
“It’s getting a lot more difficult to walk up two flights of tenement stairs,” he said last week during an interview at The Spa Diner, where the good-natured city employee is well known among the diner’s staff. “It would be ideal for me to get into a place with an elevator.”
Monte Magno said he also applied to live at Columbia Towers on Bloomfield Street, a privately-owned building. He filled out all the paperwork to apply and brought it to the building.
“There’s a woman in the lobby who ripped up my application, literally, right in front of me because I was [too young],” Monte Magno said. “Not even behind my back.”
The age requirement for several of the senior buildings in Hoboken is 62, but those are the public federally funded ones. Regulations for private buildings can vary.
From the Housing Authority
Monte Magno was raised in the Hoboken Housing Authority in the 1960s, “back when they were still called the new projects,” he said. Ironically, his disability landed his family a spot in the HHA when he was younger.
Now, he can’t seem to get back in.
“My parents got in there because of me, because not only was there an elevator, but we lived on the first floor, and there was ramp access in the back of the building that I lived in,” Monte Magno said.
After Monte Magno got married in 1972, he moved to Jersey City to an elevator building with his now ex-wife.
Monte Magno has worked for multiple companies, and possesses an associate’s degree from St. Peter’s College in computer science. He lived right near the college in Jersey City.
“Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have thought of going [to college],” he said.
He eventually landed a job working for his native city in 1995 in the violations bureau.
“[City Clerk] Mr. [James] Farina was impressed with my work, and the mayor at the time was impressed with my work, so I was eventually moved to the City Clerk’s office as the licensing clerk,” he said.
But Monte Magno said during snowstorms, he sometimes has to take sick days because he can’t get to City Hall.
“If I can’t cross the street, I can’t get to the bus,” he said.
He’s popular in the city, not only as a member of the well-known city clerk’s office staff, but also as the past president of the Elks Club. He said that when he was younger, the Elks Club helped him and his family with wheelchairs, and the club still helps disabled children today.
Over the past two years, he’s applied for many handicapped-accessible apartments in Hoboken’s public housing system, but has always been denied.
He said he lives in a “lovely building” and doesn’t have complaints about the property, but his life would be easier if he were able to live in a publicly-run, handicapped-accessible housing property.
A friend helps him with laundry “out of the goodness of her heart,” Monte Magno said. He hasn’t been to a grocery store in years, and often orders food delivered to his home. Monte Magno said he is able to handle small trips to the deli for milk and coffee.
What about emergencies?
But a primary concern for him is what would happen in case of an emergency.
“God forbid there’s a fire,” Monte Magno said. “How the hell am I going to get out of there? I can hardly use the stairs; how am I supposed to use a fire escape? That’s a major concern for me.”
HUD: Can’t make exceptions to financial restriction
A spokesperson for the department of Housing and Urban Development said that the department “can not comment on individual cases without reviewing all the pertinent details, but generally applicants would have to be income eligible to receive subsidized housing that’s assisted by HUD.”
This includes disabled people, he said.
The spokesperson also said that the low-income limit in Hudson County for one person increased from $39,300 in 2011 to $41,250 for 2012. Monte Magno said he will review his finances to see if he fits into the category.
An email and phone request for comment from Hoboken Housing Authority Executive Director Carmelo Garcia were not returned by press time.
‘We don’t have a club’
Monte Magno possesses a strong sense of humor, according to those who know him, and he displayed it during his interview over a cheeseburger and onion rings at the Spa Diner.
When asked if he knew anyone else in a similar situation trying to land a handicapped-accessible apartment in town, he responded with a laugh that “contrary to popular belief,” disabled people don’t all hang out together.
“We don’t have a club,” Monte Magno said, laughing.
He hopes to land a spot soon.
“This is becoming a real concern for me,” Monte Magno said. “I know that nobody gets better as they get older. I’m not a foreseer of the future, but I can tell it’s going to be very difficult to run out to the store and leave my apartment.”
He said he’s not looking for a financial break, and would even pay the market rate for an apartment if he could afford one. He hopes that some time in the future, there will be housing for people in Hudson County who are not only low-income or elderly, but handicapped.
“[The Housing Authority] expects you to be on public assistance,” Monte Magno said. “And being handicapped seems to take a back seat to that. I don’t think that’s completely right or fair.”
Ray Smith may be reached at RSmith@hudsonreporter.com