In Bridgeton, it takes village to afford rents
Parking, trash laws used to curb stuffed duplexes
Parking, trash laws used to curb stuffed duplexes
(Published: Monday, September 01, 200

BRIDGETON - When Estela Fernandez made the annual trek to New Jersey this year with her husband and three children, she walked this city's streets for two days looking for a place to live.

They knocked on doors all over town, looking for a place they can stay while Fernandez's husband works harvesting blueberries at a farm in nearby Atlantic County. They eventually found one on Cedar Street, where the monthly rent was $640.

It doesn't sound like a bad deal, but factor in that Fernandez's family is sharing the duplex apartment with about 10 other adults, each of whom is paying $160 per month.

At least in the summer months, when demand for housing in this city is at its highest due to the large influx of seasonal workers coming to work in the region's farms, those prices indicate that the person managing the home where 36-year-old Fernandez lives is collecting $2,200 per month.

It's a profitability that, according to officials and community leaders, has caused the average rental price in Bridgeton to eclipse the average price of rent in neighboring communities. That profitability also has caused rent to far exceed what one would pay for a mortgage if they actually owned one of the historic Victorian-era duplexes that line this city's streets.

According to data compiled by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2008 fair-market rent prices for Cumberland County averaged $1,162 for a three-bedroom unit and $1,224 for a four-bedroom unit.

Those same units would go for $1,310 and $1,469, respectively, in Atlantic County and $1,172 and $1,207 in Cape May County.

If one were to buy one of the three- or four-bedroom duplexes on the market in Bridgeton for about $70,000 with a $5,000 down payment, an interest rate of 6.805 percent would put a monthly 30-year mortgage payment at $454.

To Jessica Culley, an organizer with the Farmworkers' Support Committee based in Glassboro, Gloucester County, the fair-market prices published by HUD seem to be hovering at the very low end of what the market in Bridgeton currently bears.

The going rental price for a duplex in Bridgeton, she said, is about $1,500, almost 25 percent more than what government statistics indicate as average.

"There are families who want to be able to get a place on their own and are having trouble finding a place they can afford," Culley said. "The underlying factor has to do with the cost of housing. A family with two people working can't pay for a $1,500 house."

To city officials, the high cost of renting in Bridgeton is one of the strongest factors contributing to the city's overcrowding problem. It's a problem almost everyone talks about and a subject mentioned often at City Council meetings.

In the past two years, officials have implemented a variety of policies that, whether explicitly or not, were created to mitigate the problems caused by overcrowding.

To stem the tide of trash clogging city streets on collection days, garbage in Bridgeton must be placed in blue city-issued containers. To stop people from destroying lawns, cars must be parked on pavement, concrete or stone. A parking-permit program started earlier this year on the densely packed Oak Street - which many have praised as a success in eliminating the number of parked cars with out-of-state license plates - is about to expand to yet another city neighborhood.

Housing Department Supervisor Melanie Walters acknowledged last week that the city's overcrowding problem is an area of concern her staff is working to address. In regulating the rental housing market, she added, the city does not require landlords to disclose the rent prices they charge.

Hispanic community advocates say landlords often are not the ones charging migrant workers such as Fernandez per-person prices for temporary board. But coupled with the short supply of housing in Bridgeton, the high demand for it often puts working families at the mercy of those able and willing to offer shelter.

In Fernandez's case, the cost of housing takes up more than 90 percent of her husband's income, which Fernandez said averages about $160 per week.

"We looked all over Bridgeton, and we couldn't find anything else," Fernandez said. "We have to pay the price they gave us."

In a survey taken in 2006, Culley's organization found that undocumented Hispanic immigrants, working about 10 months of the year, had an average monthly income between $1,155 and $1,329.

The organization also found that monthly housing costs per person were, on average, between $194 and $222.

Cases such as Fernandez's, Culley said, are woefully common.

"I think it's an example of how people in the same community often try to take advantage of each other," she said. "If they charge them per person, they can end up making a little something. It's a natural thing thathappens. For the most part, they're not charging significantly abovewhat they're paying anyway."

Mayor Jim Begley said he didn't think rent control would be an effective strategy to rein in the price of rent in his city.

"I don't know if it would stem that," he said. "Landlords charge whatever they can get away with. They take advantage of the Hispanic community because the Hispanic community doesn't argue or put up any resistance."

Begley said he felt the problem would correct itself as more Hispanic families purchased the homes they previously rented. He also encouraged Hispanic community members to report those landlords and property managers who are taking advantage of workers by charging per-person rates and packing many adults into one dwelling.

"That's something where the ordinances are on the books and we enforcethem," he said. "But it's a constant cat-and-mouse thing that you have to beconstantly looking in on."

E-mail John Martins:

JMartins@pressofac.com