Months after Ida flooded their homes, many of New Jersey's most vulnerable residents are still displaced. For them, let's bring the conversation about affordable housing home.
Joanne Wilkerson, 76, lived on the Oakwood Plaza premises in Elizabeth for 42 years. Hurricane Ida's deadly dash through New Jersey wrecked her townhouse and left her and hundreds of others displaced for months on end. Now, she's advocating for affordable housing for all.Joanne Wilkerson parks herself in a red beach chair on Irvington Avenue in Elizabeth as bone-chilling winds blow snow sideways around her.
Many of the Oakwood Plaza tenants I spoke with months ago expressed their frustration about “still living in hotels” and. And sadly, for many, as we inch into March that’s still the case. And in 2021, New Jersey saw three times more people fall into homelessness than those who left homelessness and found permanent housing, Taiisa Kelly, CEO of Monarch Housing Associates, a nonprofit that organizes the state’s annual homeless count,If you’re still not shocked, consider this – 3,879 New Jerseyans experiencing homelessness have been approved for housing assistance programs, but there are no apartments available to them.
Valerie Madden, far left, attends a rally in front of the Oakwood Plaza apartment complex in Elizabeth where she used to live. Madden is one of many residents who were displaced when Hurricane Ida flooded their homes. “I know the mayor of Elizabeth and many others are asking the state to step in and create affordable housing opportunities here,” Gopal said.
“We have to allow that conversation to materialize and mature, [housing] issues have to be talked about as importantly as police reform,” he said. “Without housing, where do we go? Where do you raise your kids? Where do you leave from to go to work? Where do you recover from COVID-19? So, housing has to be at the epicenter of these conversations.”
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