Trying to solve Lakewood's housing problem

Affordable housing coming to Lakewood:

Asbury Park Press:

LAKEWOOD — A coalition of private citizens and public officials has crafted the document that will be a new application for the township's affordable housing program... The application is the latest step in the township's voluntary plan to provide more affordable housing. The Township Committee already has given land to three nonprofit housing agencies — New Jersey Housing and Neighborhood Development, the Lakewood Housing Authority and Solutions to End Poverty Soon, or STEPS — so they can build hundreds of single-family homes and town houses that will be available for rent or sale.
Prices for those units — which will be distributed in a lottery — may start as low as $125,000. But to qualify to live in the homes, applicants will need to meet guidelines for income that they may be unaware of, officials have said...

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050901/NEWS02/509010499/1070/NEWS02 .

From a letter in the paper:

..First, the article connected the flight of long-time low-income residents from town to "a gentrification tied to the growth of Beth Medrash Govoha." That is only part of the story and narrowly defines responsibility for gentrification, which is motivated by different interests.This relatively small township of Lakewood is home to two universities that are expanding and creating a demand by students, staff and construction workers for housing and services within proximity of the institutions. This is an effect of gentrification — new groups move in, displacing existing residents and increasing pressure on the land and neighborhoods whenever development discounts the interests of existing residents...

.http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050901/OPINION/509010451/1029/POLITICS