Housing Authority Residents Taking Vision 20/20 Protest to Commissioner's Pa. Home

Hoboken Housing Authority residents, who have already picketed outside city hall and the condo of two HHA commissioners yet to sign on to a controversial public housing redevelopment plan, may soon be taking their show on the road.

The residents’ next protest will take them out of state, to the home of commissioner Jake Stuiver, who lives in eastern Pennsylvania.

Stuiver, the board’s former chairman whose term expired in May but who has continued to serve as a holdover due to city council’s inability to agree on a replacement, has attracted the brunt of HHA residents’ contempt for months.

In addition to drawing residents’ ire for living out of state, he’s also been the most vocal critic of HHA executive director Carmelo Garcia, penning op-eds that call into question Garcia’s leadership of the housing authority and proposing a resolution to terminate his contract.

About an hour into the verbal pummeling Stuiver was receiving from residents during the public portion of Thursday’s HHA meeting, he managed to inflame tensions even higher when, amid accusations of being a deadbeat for not reimbursing the housing authority for a conference he signed up for but did not attend in 2011, he asked Garcia to itemize his donations to the housing authority over the years.

“The number of thousand- and multi-thousand-dollar checks I've written over the past four years to ensure that residents have quality events and activities from a board that cares about the community should stand as a testament to my sincere concern for the residents and the quality of life in the HHA,” Stuiver said Saturday, explaining his ask.

The request did not sit well with Joe Branco, a resident and local bar owner who aspires to sit on the HHA board. 

“I’m pretty astonished that you would actually ask for a total of how much you donated to the housing authority. If you give from the heart, you give. You don’t ask to keep track of how much you gave,” Branco said during public comment before announcing that Stuiver’s request had itself inspired him to give back to the residents. 

“I think Jake feels left out, that nobody’s protesting in front of his house in Pennsylvania,” Branco continued. “So tonight, I am going to pay for the bus with money out of my pocket so we can go to Pennsylvania to Jake’s house so his neighbors can see what Jake does to us in Hoboken.”

Branco confirmed Friday that while he is leaving the planning up to the resident committee, his offer to finance the group’s transportation to Stuiver’s home in Havertown, Pa. still stands. 

“Absolutely I would do it,” he reiterated. “I’m funding it for them to give them the voice that they deserve.”

As of Friday, residents had yet to set a date for the protest, but that hasn’t stopped Stuiver from anticipating their arrival.

“I have very concrete, substantive information leading me to believe that the threat of bringing a bus of angry housing authority residents to my house in Pennsylvania is a very real and active plan, and is a plan that stands a very real chance of entailing an actual danger to me and my family,” he said, noting a phone conversation with Garcia in which the executive director allegedly asked him why he didn't resign and warned him that he had reason to believe tensions could escalate during the protest.

Stuiver said he doesn't know whether Garcia's warning was a threat or a genuine heads up, but as a result, he has been in touch with both the Hoboken and Haverford, Pa. police departments, as well as his attorney. 

“I need to prepare for the very real possibility that it’s not going to be a safe situation for me,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if I come back with windows broken.” 

Nima Ameri, Stuiver’s attorney, said residents would be wise to consult with an attorney of their own before protesting at his client’s house because Stuiver intends to “utilize any and all civil and criminal remedies” to prosecute anyone who maliciously violates his rights.

“Anyone is welcome to do whatever they want, but the question is, ‘Is what they’re doing legal and is it right?’” he said. “They need to be willing to accept the consequences if it’s not.”

Branco said Stuiver and his lawyer’s declarations would not dissuade him from funding and attending the protest. 

“Why is he trying to silence the residents?” he said. “I’d be more than happy to let the police in the community know we’re having a protest and that it’ll be peaceful. Everything is done above board.”

While he has made preparations for a possible protest at his house, Stuiver said he is not allowing the housing authority residents’ tactics — which he believes are intended to precipitate his resignation from the board — to intimidate him.

“I will not be resigning,” Stuiver said. “I’m just trying to honor my fiduciary responsibility to the housing authority and will serve out whatever the duration of my term turns out to be until my seat is filled.”