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HOUSING COMPLEX FOR VETERANS OPENS

Pascack Valley Community Life - 10/19/2017

EMERSON - At least six months away from a liver transplant and fed up with his landlord, Frank Sgobbo needed a change of scenery.

The 57-year-old Marine Corps veteran, whose illnesses prevent him from working, said he and his Yorkie, Gucci, found what they were looking for: a fully furnished apartment behind American Legion Post 269 on Main Street.

"They call it an apartment," Sgobbo said on Oct. 11, "but, to me, it's a little house. Besides my children being born, this is the best thing that ever happened to me."

Sgobbo is one of more than a dozen disabled or homeless veterans now living in an apartment complex dedicated just for them - a project that affordable-housing advocates tout as the first of its kind in Bergen County.

In front of hundreds of guests on Oct. 11, the Housing Development Corporation of Bergen County -- the nonprofit arm of the Housing Authority of Bergen County -- officially opened the project, known as Emerson Veterans Supportive Housing, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Speaking to a crowd gathered under a tent in the complex's parking lot, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco praised the project, calling disabled and homeless veterans a priority.

"You took part of your life and put it on hold for us," Tedesco said. "The least we can do is give you a pillow to put your head on and a safe and affordable place to call home."

What makes the $3.1 million project unique is that it is the only affordable-housing project run by the county dedicated to veterans with special needs.

Lynn Bartlett, executive director of the Housing Development Corporation, said the project was primarily financed by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, which provided $2.8 million. The rest was paid for by the Housing Development Corporation.

The apartments are leased to veterans whose household income is less than 50 percent of the area median income.

Funding, labor and materials to furnish the apartments was donated by the American Legion post, the Bergen County Division of Veterans Services, Making-It-Home and corporate and nonprofit sponsors.

The 2.2-acre tract -- once a farm -- was donated by the American Legion post. The land was worth a small fortune, but Post Commander John Hogan said local veterans no longer had the wherewithal to maintain the property.

Hogan said former state Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk asked if the post would consider a different use for the land when she was the Housing Development Corporation's director of development.

"She put the bug in my ear," Hogan, a Navy veteran of the Korean War, said. "It's a wonderful project, and we're happy the land was put to good use."

Vandervalk's successor, John Biale, said the post's generosity should serve as a template for all veterans organizations.

Biale said planning for the project started three and a half years ago. Construction started in November 2015.

Designed by Arcari + Iovino Architects, the seven-building complex has 14 apartments, each measuring 650 square feet.

The air-conditioned units feature bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms that also function as dining rooms. They also come with washing machines and dryers, and their bathrooms are handicap-accessible.

One of the beneficiaries is James Frazier, 57, who attended the ceremony. Before moving in, he lived in a homeless shelter for veterans in Garfield.

"I felt like I was 18 again," Frazier, an Army veteran, said about the strict rules he was forced to grow accustomed to at the shelter. "I couldn't wait to get out."

Mayor Louis Lamatina welcomed the borough's newest residents, saying the project fosters "inclusion, not exclusion" and "assimilation, not isolation."

"You are the true VIPs of this occasion," the mayor told the veterans.

The reception was exactly what Sgobbo needed to lift his spirits.

Sporting a Marines cap and jersey, Sgobbo could not stop speaking, often in run-on sentences, about his new digs.

"I really was in a bad place, mentally," he said. "But the support we got here is overwhelming -- it brings tears to my eyes."

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com