After Barnegat Projects Blocked, Habitat Looks to Build in Stafford

The two families expecting to move into Habitat for Humanity houses on Harpoon Drive in October will likely still have new homes this fall, but not in Barnegat, according to the organization’s president.

Greg Muszynski, who heads the Southern Ocean County Habitat for Humanity, said the nonprofit affiliate of the international housing charity is shifting gears and focusing on building on two plots in Stafford after the .

In order to construct the Harpoon homes, Habitat needed permission to build below the minimum square footage allowed for the type of home and the area. But following complaints from residents concerned about the smaller houses devaluing the neighborhood, the board denied Habitat’s requests.

Now, Muszynski said, the organization is turning to other nearby properties in the Manahawkin section of Ocean Acres – one it owns on Commodore Road and another it's looking to purchase on Neptune Drive.

“We’re trying to build as close to Barnegat as possible,” Muszynski said. “These families have structured their move from where they are now” – one family is in a temporary rental on Long Beach Island, one is in Berkeley – “to living in that area.”

Habitat had even been working on a plan to get the families’ children enrolled in Barnegat schools for the fall. Even though the homes weren’t scheduled to be completed until October, Muszynski said he’d talked to the district about allowing the kids to start the year in their new schools.

Now with groundbreaking pushed back at least another month, he said, that doesn’t seem likely.

The decision by the zoning board came as a surprise, said Muszynski.

“Everyone that I’ve worked with in Barnegat has been a phenomenal help to us,” he said, “so we didn’t expect it. None of the people who had concerns at that meeting had spoken to anybody at the organization about their concerns.”

And Muszynski said the specific objection – that their planned houses were too small for the neighborhood – was frustrating. According to the township’s land use guidelines, a house of those dimensions with just two bedrooms is allowable.

“We felt confident that since you were allowed to build a house that has smaller square footage, the fact that we were adding another bedroom wouldn’t be an issue,” he said.

Zoning board members were not available for comment; as board secretary Cynthia Rahn explained, the board functions in a legal capacity and rarely weighs in on issues outside of public hearings, in part because doing so could affect a possible appeal of a board decision by an individual or organization in Superior Court.

Township Committeeman Albert Bille, who serves on the planning board and has personally visited the planned home sites on Harpoon, expressed dismay that the Habitat projects hit a roadblock.

“I would hope that it can be resolved,” he said, but while the committee appoints the zoning board, it doesn’t have the ability to influence the board’s decisions.

“I think Habitat does a great job. They do wonderful things,” Bille said. “I would hope that (they) would try to come back.”

And they will, said Muszynski.

“Our hope is that we can someday use the lots at Barnegat, that someday we can go back there and build,” he said. “But right now is not that time.” Muszynski said his organization will probably mulch over the bare earth at the Harpoon sites for now.

And he said he’ll keep working to fight the stigma that’s often attached to Habitat projects and other affordable housing efforts.

“To me, it’s very difficult to hear that these houses are going to lower property values, that they’re going to become rundown, that these are people they don’t want in their neighborhoods,” he said.

Habitat families are selected based on need, Muszynski said, but also on their ability to pay and their willingness to get involved. Partner families put in 300 to 500 hours of work on their own home and other projects – it’s called “sweat equity” – and are then offered a zero-interest loan and a mortgage plan that ensures their payments and taxes will never exceed 30 percent of their income.

Nobody gets a home for free, Muszysnki said. “We like to say it’s a hand up, not a hand out.”

Muszynski grew up in Ocean Acres – in a three-bedroom ranch house of only 1,100 square feet, he pointed out – and he said he’s grateful for the start he got in life. His aim is simply to give other people the same chance, and he thinks educating others on Habitat’s mission and methods will help erase what he sees as misconceptions among residents.

“I will talk to anybody who wants to listen,” he said. “If people want to come in and talk for five hours straight about what we do, I will find time in my schedule for that.”