JERSEY CITY — With 155 charges igniting sequentially, three 10-story buildings belonging to the Montgomery Gardens public housing complex vanished, ending the city’s old commitment to the concept of public housing for the poor.
The destruction of the former housing project paves the way for a new upscale concept of development for the McGinley Square area, combining more expensive affordable housing units, senior citizen housing, and market rate units with a much reduced number of units dedicated exclusively to the poor.
The reconstruction with is expected to have a total cost exceeding $100 million will build a new concept of having residents from a wider income range living side by side. The project also comes at a time when federal money has been cut for public housing, sprouting the need for more projects like this that require private financing.
Although residents of the old Montgomery Gardens had input into the new design, many of them will never get to live in these units since there will be too few units dedicated to the extremely poor. The number of new affordable units is fewer than the number of residents who were required to vacate the projects over the last three years.
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