Affordable Veterans Housing Community Opens In Jersey City

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Jersey City celebrate the grand opening of an affordable veterans housing community in Greenville on Tuesday.

Located at 526 Ocean Avenue, the community was designed to provide quality housing and supportive services for homeless veterans and other vulnerable populations. The community contains 20 affordable apartments, including units reserved for homeless veterans of the U.S. armed forces. The building includes 1,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, functioning as a multipurpose facility to provide community-based services that promote responsibility, recovery, and wellness.

Tantum Real Estate arranged project financing from multiple sources for the project, including funding from Jersey City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund (‘AHTF’) in addition to capital from The HOME Investment Partnerships Program (‘HOME’), provided through both the municipality and Hudson County.

“I’m overwhelmed and humbled to finally open our doors to residents, including many that have bravely served our country. Today is a culmination of a years-long endeavor for Tantum, and a victory for our broader mission to foster a greater quality of life in communities throughout the region,” said Debra Tantleff, founding principal of Tantum.

The ground-floor facility of the building will be occupied by Collaborative Support Programs of New Jersey (‘CSPNJ’), a peer-led not-for-profit agency that provides services related to food access, employment, mental health assistance, and peer support groups. The property will also be managed by Community Enterprise Corporation (‘CEC’), the housing affiliate of CSPNJ. The team worked with the Hudson County Continuum of Care to identify qualified residents in need of housing, including veterans that have been honorably discharged.

In a tribute to veterans, the building also features a striking new, street-level mural along Ocean Avenue, which honors the Tuskegee Airmen. Titled ‘Red Tales,’ the piece by artist Vincent Ballentine depicts two pilots and WWII aircrafts – an homage to the heroic Black pilots that served the United States during the war. Tantum collaborated with the Jersey City Mural Arts Program to source concepts for the mural.