Housing Authority Residents Protest Outside Commissioners' Condo

Hoboken Housing Authority residents, fed up with what they feel is the city administration's politicized opposition to the controversial public housing redevelopment plan, known as Vision 20/20, protested Thursday outside the condo building of two HHA commissioners who oppose the plan.

Thursday's protest was scheduled for 5 p.m. outside the Sky Club, a luxury high-rise building located at 700 First St., where HHA commissioners David Mello and Gregory Lincoln live, according to a statement from the HHA's Resident Advisory Board. Mello also sits on the Hoboken city council.

The seven-member HHA board is divided in its support of the plan for re-imagining public housing in Hoboken. Mello and Lincoln, who side with Mayor Dawn Zimmer in opposition to the plan, argue that it hasn't been made transparent enough to the public and that more details of the plan need to be hashed out and presented before it can be seriously considered.

Vision 20/20 supporter Barbara Reyes, a Housing Authority resident and Harrison Gardens Tenant Association vice president, said the protesters see things differently. They believe HHA executive director Carmelo Garcia has presented the plan appropriately and that detractors of it oppose it on political grounds, rather than considering the best interests of public housing residents.

While HHA residents have staged protests outside city hall and packed public meetings in recent weeks following council's failure to approve a resolution of need in support of the project's first phase, Thursday's group action upped the ante. 

“We met with about 40 residents and decided to protest as a next step,” said Reyes, who has been twice nominated and twice denied a seat on the HHA Board of Commissioners by the city council. 

“In order for the Vision 20/20 Plan to move forward and receive a grant, we simply need the city council to approve a resolution of need, which they won’t do. We are not asking them for the money, just their acknowledgement that we have the need for it.”