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Preserving Neighborhoods

Irvington, located in New Jersey’s Essex County, is part of the dense suburban North Jersey tract near Newark. The area’s towns, which grew out of the larger Clinton Township in the late-1800s, embodies diversity as towns, some rich, some poor, flow imperceptibly into to one another. Crossing municipal lines is as eventful as crossing the street, and because of this, the density of this area is like kindle for the corrosive effects of foreclosures. Neighborhoods and towns are so close to one another, that when one street goes, so can the next, and before long, Meyer worries, you have a problem of regional proportions, blind to socio-economic standards, that hurts the schools, the overall housing market, and the quality of neighborhoods within the area.

This particular house, where the shootings took place, was a mortgage foreclosure that HANDS bought from Chase on a short sale, and is next to another house that was acquired on a tax lien. The homes were rehabbed, and new homeowners moved in, but then other homes began to deteriorate, and the crime rebounded. It’s one of the reasons, Meyer said, that while piecemeal property recovery can be effective, a large-scale campaign is the way to go. This street, Schuyler Terrace, in East Orange, just near the Irvington boarder, is mostly rental and sublease, with police routinely patrolling the area as squatters and drug dealers occupy some of the vacant properties.

With Newark being the exception, Orange, East Orange, Irvington, are not major cities in New Jersey, and don’t necessarily attract the resources that places like Camden do. They have a lot of the same demographics in terms of poverty levels, median income, and homeownership rates, but are not typically viewed as one, unified area. If seen as one, organizers say, it presents a clearer picture as to how to stabilize the region.