LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ-Community Investment Strategies has been selected to be part of a Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and recovery consortium being run by Enterprise Community Partners. Enterprise figured prominently in rebuilding Gulf Coast homes after Hurricane Katrina.

Using public and private funding, the consortium is undertaking a three-year effort to upgrade the New Jersey/New York/Connecticut region's affordable housing stock in order to assure safe shelter during weather-related crises. Also, the program is designed to bolster disaster response in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.

Barbara K. Schoor, CIS's vice-president said her company will focus on devising preparedness plans, and creation of a response network in addition to doing “retrofits” of multi-family buildings vulnerable to weather damage.

CIS owns and manages more than 3,000 affordable units in New Jersey. It is working with ECP and other consortium members to assess its own communities' future vulnerability to devise “effective, maximum-impact options to repair physical damage,” said Schoor.

“The devastation of Superstorm Sandy reminded all New Jersey residents, and those throughout the entire New York metropolitan area, of the importance of having a safe place to call home where we can take refuge to weather a storm and its aftermath,” she said.

The Lawrence-based company also recently completed construction of a 100-unit affordable rental community in Glassboro called Whitney Crescent. CIS re-built and fully re-tenanted the former Bentley Woods neighborhood in less than two years.

Tenants of the nine former buildings on the site had appealed to local officials in 2007 to work on revitalization; the town then engaged CIS. Once local officials negotiated with the former owners to acquire the previously distressed property through eminent domain, CIS purchased the complex and launched a comprehensive repositioning initiative in October, 2010. Meanwhile, tenants were temporarily relocated.

Funding for the revitalization initiative was provided by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's Special Needs Trust Fund, the Federal Tax Credit Assistance Program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Equity from Boston Capital, JP Morgan Chase, Gloucester County HOME, Glassboro Affordable Housing Trust Funds and Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.

In addition to Whitney Crescent, CIS has repositioned properties in Elizabeth, Bordentown and Rahway. The for-profit, certified woman-owned business enterprise is currently redeveloping 183 affordable rental units, offices and a community clubhouse at a North Brunswick site.

Instant Insights /

CIS Joins Post-Storm Affordable Housing Effort

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