newjerseynewsroom.com

Ground was broken Thursday for a new federally-funded housing development on Asbury Park's West Side that is designed to stabilize the neighborhood.

State and local officials and housing advocates gathered at 36 Avenue A, site of the STARS/Springwood Neighborhood Stabilization Project.

The state Department of Community Affairs has committed $2.5 million in federal housing aid to the housing.

"The DCA's commitment of $2.5 million is leveraging an additional $10.9 million in other funds for a project that will convert foreclosed and vacant properties into new housing opportunities," Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa said. "This project is happening in an area and at a time in which virtually no new housing construction is taking place."

The federally-funded Neighborhood Stabilization Program is intended to help neighborhoods hit by the subprime mortgage crisis and the general economic downturn.

The $2.5 million grant will be used to build 28 newly constructed residences, 20 for ownership and 8 for rental.

Interfaith Neighbors Inc., an Asbury Park non-profit organization, is the aid recipient. The group has formed a consortium with the Affordable Housing Alliance and Coastal Habitat for Humanity to complete the STARS/Springwood project.

Asbury Park was one of 22 New Jersey cities and towns to receive NSP funding from the DCA, which was awarded $51.4 million in funds last year from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

DCA has awarded a total of 35 grants to municipalities, counties, non-profit and for-profit developers to purchase, rehabilitate, and resell foreclosed and vacant properties that have been a blighting influence in neighborhoods.

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM