Veterans Housing Coming To Tinton Falls – Middletown, NJ Patch

TINTON FALLS, NJ — This past Saturday, Sept. 12 saw the start of construction on a $23 million, 70-unit apartment community in Tinton Falls for veterans of the U.S. armed forces, including veterans transitioning from homelessness.

Construction of the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Village will be directed by WinnDevelopment, the development arm of U.S. affordable housing leader WinnCompanies. The project will feature a four-story building with 70 one-bedroom apartments that will be available at a range of income levels: 18 units will be available to individuals earning up to 30 percent of Area Median Income (AMI); 24 will be designated at 50 percent of AMI; 10 at 60 percent of AMI, and 18 at 80 percent AMI.

Veterans’ Village is located on a wooded 12-acre site on Essex Road in the borough of Tinton Falls; the property was donated by Tinton Falls. Federal, state, county and local officials gathered Saturday morning at Liberty Park in Tinton Falls to celebrate the groundbreaking.

Expected to be ready for occupancy by October 2021, the community is named for the late Gordon H. Mansfield, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran who served as Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

This project is being built in partnership with Soldier On, a non-profit organization serving homeless veterans since 1994. Solider On will provide residents at The Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans’ Village with comprehensive services, including case management and wellness support, workforce assistance, benefits assessment and application assistance, legal services, transportation, telehealth, daily meals and many ancillary support programs.

The area’s local congressman, Chris Smith, said it took more than a decade to get this project to come to fruition.

“Because of federal, state and local public and private partnership, we are making progress – but there are 37,000 homeless vets on the street on any given night,” said Smith, (R-NJ4). That number remains unconscionable high. We have more to work to do.”

Smith said Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry was “the quarterback” in the effort to see the project through to completion.

“I am especially grateful to Freeholder Lillian Burry for her extraordinary dream of a creating a Monmouth County homeless veterans housing initiative, and for her tenacity and skill in making it happen. For nearly a decade, Lillian has been the quarterback in the push to meet the compelling housing and service needs of homeless veterans—and there have been many setbacks along the way, including an inability to secure space at Fort Monmouth.”

“I have been proud to do my part in finding a Monmouth County home for Soldier On, and I promise you I will continue to be an active supporter as it moves from design through construction to the day that it opens its doors and welcomes its very first veteran home,” Burry said.

“I am very excited to see the start of construction on the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Village in Tinton Falls,” said New Jersey State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth). “As Chair of the Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I’m grateful for this apartment complex setting aside one bedroom apartments for homeless veterans in our community. The transition from military service to civilian life can be very difficult, but the economic downturn caused by the public health crisis has made it even harder for our veterans to find jobs and put a roof over their family’s head. This apartment complex encompasses a token of our gratitude towards those who have served our great nation.”

The $23 million project is supported by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), which will provide construction and permanent financing from the Agency Revenue Bond Financing Program and a subsidy mortgage loan commitment from the NJHMFA’s Multifamily Rental Housing Production Fund; low-income housing tax credit equity provided by Bank of America; a subordinate mortgage from Federal Home Loan Bank New York Affordable Housing Program; HOME funds from Monmouth County, NJ; project based rental assistance from the New Jersey Department of Housing Assistance; and, a deferred developer fee.

The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has awarded 18 Housing Choice Project Based Vouchers to the project to assist homeless veterans.