The Garden State Episcopal Community Development Corporation (GSECDC) has received a $75,000 grant to support affordable housing initiatives from the TD Charitable Foundation’s annual “Housing for Everyone” grant competition.
Specifically, the money will go to GSECDC’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which calls for the development of 93 units of affordable mixed-income housing, housing education and foreclosure prevention over a three year period. Most of the housing units include the acquisition, rehab/new construction and resale/rental of foreclosed or abandoned properties, in an effort to curb the negative effects foreclosures and vacant units can have on a community.
GSECDC executive director Carol Mori, who is “ecstatic” about the grant, says the Neighborhood Stabilization Program “will focus on stabilizing some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Jersey City, whose progress and revitalization has been compromised due to a disproportionate amount of foreclosures and abandonment in the past year.” She pegs the total investment through the program at $16 million.
But that’s not all the good news the GSEDC has received lately. It also won a “Neighborhood Impact Award” at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s 7th Neighborhood Achievement Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations that are revitalizing underserved neighborhoods in New Jersey.
JCECDC received the award for its significant long-term impact on the revitalization of its community. To date, the organization has developed over 172 units of housing in Jersey City providing affordable, safe and quality housing to over 500 Jersey City residents annually while developing blighted and derelict properties for constructive neighborhood use.