It’s been months since Hurricane Ida hit New Jersey, but for Hundreds of people became homeless When the storm flooded their homes at Section 8 apartment complex at 600 Oakwood, Elizabeth, not much has changed. Just a few weeks before Christmas, many are still without permanent accommodation.
Sherrise Simmons, the 33-year-old single mother of three, told me in September she lived in a rental car, said she now lives in an apartment where she was temporarily housed just days after my column ran about her and others in the paper.
“Do you think this is a coincidence?” She asked. “That I was called out of nowhere: ‘You’ll get an apartment'” … it’s not a nice apartment, but an apartment. “
The call came from Community Investment Strategies, the privately held company that owns and manages the Oakwood Plaza apartment complex, where she has lived since 2012. Shortly thereafter, she and two of her young children moved into an unfurnished three-bedroom room on Magnolia Avenue in Elizabeth, in a building also managed by CIS.
Simmons, president of Oakwood’s Tenants Rights Organization, said it was a sounding board for the many other renters who weren’t as lucky.
“There are still people in shelters, there are still people in hotels, some are in the YMCA,” she said.
“Some people were placed in apartments in the city center [Elizabeth], some in Lakewood and others as far as Atlantic City. There is a family of five who have been squeezed into a one-room apartment. I keep getting calls. The struggle continues, the headache continues, the stress. Sometimes it just feels like there’s no end in sight. “
To add insult to injury, Simmons said renters who stay in hotels are being hunted for rent by the CIS.
“Rent money for their flooded apartments,” she said. “The city [of Elizabeth] pays for hotel rooms, but this is where the CIS calls and tells people to still pay rent. And for apartments in which they don’t even live. How does that make sense? “
The management company did not respond to calls for comments by the editorial deadline on Friday. If a comment is received, the story will be updated.
Community activist Salaam Ismial has been involved in the plight of Oakwood Plaza tenants since her ordeal began and, like Simmons, has often lent an ear and a hand to tenants in need and joined Simmons in her efforts with Tenants Rights Group.
His own niece Sharonda Moore has been living at the Doubletree Hotel in Newark since early September.
“It is bizarre to think that there are still hundreds of people, hundreds of families without permanent residence,” said Ismial.
He said it was time for everyone involved, housing and urban development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the City of Elizabeth, CIS management and the tenant rights organization, to put their heads together and work to resolve the situation.
“Let’s have a meeting and listen to each other,” he said. “Let’s develop a comprehensive plan to provide permanent shelter for these people.”
Ismial said he and Simmons had reached out to several “stakeholders” but none had committed to meeting with tenants. “But if we don’t get together these problems will drag on,” he said.
Moore, Ismial’s niece, who has lived in a hotel with her family for months, said she can still remember the storm night well. “It was like a Lifetime Thriller, ”she says.
Moore said her house was one of the closest houses to the river, a townhouse on the same strip of houses where four people were found dead.
That night the river rose to the level of their windows. Water came into her house. Water flooded their truck. Water everywhere, destroying everything in its way.
“It’s something I don’t want anyone else to ever have that experience,” she said. The memories are hard to forget, but she is ready to move on. She said she was looking forward to leaving the hotel and finding a new place to stay.
“I want a place where I can just feel comfortable, relaxed and fully oriented,” she says. A place where she can have a home again. And some rest. And that’s all the displaced residents of Oakwood Plaza want. And by god they should have it.
Daysi Calavia-Robertson can be contacted at dcalavia-robertson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Instagram at @presspassdaysi or Twitter @presspassdaysi.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today NJ.com.
Here is how to submit a comment or letter to the editor. bookmark NJ.com/meinung. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Meinung and on Facebook at NJ.com opinion. Get the latest news straight to your inbox. Subscribe to to the newsletters from NJ.com.
