In a town where many working-class residents and artists can no longer afford to live, and with a waiting list 858-people long to get into public housing, even the new director of the publicly funded Hoboken Housing Authority projects said last week that he hasn’t found a reasonably priced residence to move into in town, despite looking.
“I’m currently out in West Orange,” said new HHA Executive Director Marc Recko last week. “I do hope to get back here in the long term.”
Sidestepping exactly why he didn’t directly move to Hoboken, Recko, who has a family, said he has not yet found a suitable apartment at the right price.
“As we go down the road, we have to take a real good look at how the city can find affordable housing for working-class families,” he said in an interview last week.
Recko was hired by the HHA’s unpaid seven-member Board of Commissioners last October. He will soon mark six months on the job.
The HHA oversees the 1,353 units of low-income and senior citizen public housing in 28 properties at six locations on the west side of Hoboken. The projects are partly funded by subsidies from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development.
The Section 8 wait list has been closed since 2004.
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With decades of housing experience and leadership roles in his native Cleveland, Ohio, and most recently in North Carolina, Recko received a one-year contract last year after the Hoboken Housing Authority board conducted a nationwide search.
Recko said he wants to see the HHA thrive and hopes stay for the remainder of his career, which could be up to 10 years.
Hoboken’s projects have been mired in controversy and power struggles for decades. With thousands of residents in one dense area of town, the projects are often seen as a source of votes in each local election. But there are long periods during which residents’ concerns are rarely addressed publicly in letters to the editor or at council meetings.
In the 1990s, a top HHA official was actually taken out in handcuffs in the middle of an evening meeting. Over the years, the agency has been designated as troubled at times by the federal department of Housing and Urban Development, and struggled to provide a better quality of life for the residents.
The HHA has failed the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) last five inspections (which include a physical walkthrough, looking for things such as light getting in through cracks in the doorways), Recko said.
The threat of HUD taking over always looms, but Recko doesn’t see signs of that happening this year.
Recko openly admits that much of his dealings thus far have had to do organizing the agency and “going back to basics.”
“Some of what I’ve accomplished in my first six months has been making steps to create the maintenance director position and look for someone to fill the post, and now we are working to create a physical needs assessment,” he said.
A lack of physical needs assessment means the HHA doesn’t really know how much money it needs to mend its largest wounds. However, Recko suspects with elevator repairs and the need for other major infrastructure improvements, that figure will be high.
“I don’t know what that number will be, but know it’ll be huge,” he said.
The waitlist, evictions, and lack of funds
Many seniors, veterans, and low-income families are able to stay in Hoboken and keep their kids in the schools by living in the HHA – but there is little turnover, few chances for new needy families or individuals to get into an apartment.
The public housing waitlist, a hot-button issue with residents, has been closed since November of 2011, according to Recko.
Hence, residents or families who are evicted from non-public housing in Hoboken need resort to other means to stay in the area. Individuals or families currently on the list can move up if, for instance, they become disabled, but no one new can be added to the list.
In fact, clicking the “Waiting List Status” link on the HHA’s website may be a bit demoralizing – it directs the user to an error page.
“Some wait three, four, even five years [for a unit],” said Recko. “It’s really tough with folks walking in with kids and they’re number 80 on the list, and all we can say is, ‘Hang in there.’ ”
While families can choose to move to a more affordable town, they may be heading further from transportation to work, or from their child’s school, or from their families.
Hoboken also has other types of affordable housing built privately by developers with low-interest government mortgages. But there is little turnover in those units as well, as families do not have to leave when their income rises.
Recko said his agency needs more money, but by not passing HUD’s annual inspection, the agency “is showing that we’re not doing everything on our end.”
Thus far in 2016, the HHA has seen turnover of approximately 30 units to new tenants or to those transfering within the HHA. He expects to see 50 to 60 more change hands by the end of the year. When he came into office, Recko said, the roofs of two Marshall Street units needed replacement, which led to the transfer of 20 families. Those 20 had to be housed in newly-vacated units – taking away spots that could have gone to people on the waitlist.
Another way units become available is when a family is evicted. The agency’s one-strike rule means if someone in a unit is arrested for a drug offense, their entire family can be kicked out (following a meeting or a hearing). A lack of payment of rent, or failure to report additional income, can also result in eviction.
“Anyone who is evicted has the opportunity for a hearing,” Recko said. “We try to be fair across the board but at the same time have to be fair to the rest of our residents.”
Recko added, “If someone is doing drugs in front of one of our buildings, we can evict them without going through a formal hearing process. But even then, they are offered a meeting with the HHA.”
In some cases, if one member of a family is found to commit a crime, the HHA reserves the right to impose the condition that the rest of the family can return to the unit if the one family member doesn’t continue their tenancy.
However, Recko said, these situations are treated on a case by case basis.
Security
Besides creating a better structure within the HHA, Recko wants to improve security.
Earlier this year, a teen was shot after a dispute at a basketball court on Hoboken Housing Authority property.
And in the first week of April, the Hoboken Police Department released a list of 11 people no longer allowed on HHA property or within 500 feet of it due to an undercover sting related to alleged narcotics distribution.
Recko said when he began his term, of the 60 security cameras that were supposed to be monitoring properties within the HHA, 15 were not working at all. Those were working, he said, displayed blurry images and did not have infrared capabilities so they did not work effectively after dark.
“As we speak, we’re installing new cameras,” said Recko, noting that these will provide high-quality digital images and “night vision.”
The new cameras, which cost $173,925, will be paid for through the capital fund.
Politics
Recko took over the HHA after a tumultuous period.
Prior to Recko, several interim directors were running the agency. Before that, Executive Director Carmelo Garcia was appointed to run the HHA in 2009, during the administration of Mayor David Roberts. Garcia was often at odds with members of the board who were allies of subsequent Mayor Dawn Zimmer. He was terminated in August 2014 after Zimmer’s allies gained control of the board. The new board members raised questions about how Garcia awarded contracts. Garcia filed a suit claiming he had been wrongfully terminated and that the mayor was undertaking a campaign of getting rid of her enemies in official positions. See prior stories at www.hudsonreporter.com.
HHA Chair Dana Wefer did not return phone calls for comment by press time last week as to the status of the board’s concerns.
At the time of Recko’s appointment, Wefer said she was “excited” to have him.
After Garcia (who was also serving as an assemblyman at the time) was dismissed in 2014, the board chose a series of interim successors: Emil Kotherithara, Richard Fox, and most recently, West New York and Weehawken Housing Authority Executive Director Robert DiVincent.
Recko says the politics on the housing agency have calmed down.
“I don’t know everything that happened with Mr. Garcia,” he said. “But between times he was here and I came, that became old [news]. I think folks were really happy that I came and said I’m here full time.”
Recko says he wants to highlight the positives of the HHA.
“The real answer to homelessness is housing,” he said, “and it’s crucial we provide it.”
Steven Rodas can be reached at srodas@hudsonreporter.com.