Camden officials tout $16M collaboration to provide affordable housing

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Camden officials have launched a collaboration among Camden County Improvement Authority, Cooper Foundation and Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors to address affordable housing needs in the City of Camden.

The Camden Community Housing Collaborative will work to improve housing options for city residents and those who want to move into the city.

“What is lacking in the city is a quality housing stock to give options to people who live, who work in the city, to remain in the city when their work hours are done,” said Camden County Commissioner Jeffrey L. Nash, who is also chief executive officer of the Rowan Rutgers joint board.

In addition to a slowdown in housing development, Camden has a disproportionately older housing stock, said Ashley Maddison, managing attorney of the housing justice program at Rutgers University Law School in Camden.

“It’s got lead paint, it has plumbing issues, drainage issues, all kinds of issues,” she said, adding that the housing stock “has just not kept up with all the activity that goes on in Camden.”

“We’ve had experiences with multiple generations of families who, though living in different homes within the City of Camden, were exposed to lead or were exposed to other poor living conditions,” Maddison said.

Earlier this year, officials touted that home prices are increasing in the city, mirroring a statewide trend.

The new collaborative will award grants to nonprofit organizations and developers. Camden County Improvement Authority will contribute $7.5 million from its revolving housing fund, and the Rowan Rutgers joint board chipped in $5.5 million. The Cooper Foundation gave “several million,” according to a news release.

The $16 million fund is designed to bolster the work of five nonprofit developers: St. Joe’s Carpenter’s Society, Habitat for Humanity, Heart of Camden, Parkside Business and Community in Partnership and Camden Lutheran Housing.

“It’s taking advantage of an existing model that has been very successful in the city and multiplying what they can do because the resources will now be there for them,” Nash said.

He said that some neighborhoods are in higher demand, such as downtown and Cramer Hill in East Camden, while others are struggling.

“It’s going to take time,” he said. “But this initiative is citywide and it stabilizes some of the areas that might be more challenging and matches the large demand in places that are like the downtown area.”

Maddison said she hopes the initiative will be an opportunity to bring more homes to the city.

“One of the barriers that our clients often face when they’re trying to become housed or move from one living situation to a better one, is that there just isn’t enough housing stock to choose from,” she said. “We think that this project will help that, we hope at least.”