U.F.'s affordable housing plan would help disabled
Occupational Training Center, Project Freedom hope to partner with twp.
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD- The executive director of an organization that develops housing for disabled persons gave a presentation at the Feb. 28 township committee meeting.

The governing body is looking at various ways to fulfill its Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations. The committee is considering Project Freedom to work in conjunction with the Occupational Training Center (OTC), a Mount Holly-based nonprofit organization that provides employment for people with disabilities and works with the local school district to provide janitorial services.

Project Freedom is a nonprofit organization that develops and operates barrierfree housing to enable individuals with disabilities to live independently. The group also provides supportive services such as recreation, training and advocacy, according to its Web site.

Tim Doherty, the executive director of Project Freedom, said his agency built a 30-unit apartment complex on a 3.5-acre site in Robbinsville. The group also built 40, one-bedroom apartments and eight, two-bedroom apartments on 10 acres in Hamilton and 44, one-bedroom apartments and 10, two-bedroom apartments on 13 acres in Lawrence. In Trenton, Project Freedom has 52 apartments next to the train station, he said.

Doherty said COAH rules are currently in flux but said municipalities usually get one COAH credit per unit. The organization would need 10 to 15 acres to build 50 units, he said.

"The goal is to provide a clean, independent living environment," Doherty said.

Project Freedom services a wide range of the physically and developmentally disabled including the most physically challenged, he said. He said the organization looks to partner with municipalities, planners and housing officials and to work with outside social service agencies.

After showing the committee designs for a possible project, Committeeman Bob Faber said, "This looks like an attractive project for COAH. I think there is a good possibility this could work for us."

Doherty said the development would require public water and sewerage.

Committeeman Stanley Moslowski Jr. said he had visited Project Freedom's Hamilton site and said it was very nicely kept and run efficiently.

He asked about transportation for workers and Doherty said OTC arranges their transport.

Robert Shinn said OTC provides 450 out of its 500 clients with transportation.

"If the facility is close to work it makes everything work nicely," Shinn said. "It's an ideal situation."

Shinn, who is the former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said he first became involved with OTC in 1981 when he served as Burlington County Freeholder.

At that time, the freeholders had started a recycling program and used Moorestown as a pilot municipality. The recycling contractor stored newspapers on the town's athletic fields and when a windstorm blew them all over Moorestown, OTC was hired to clean them up.

Shinn said OTC eventually took the recycling contract over in 1982 and has been doing a good job ever since.

OTC representative Karen Elliott said that her company has also provided cleaning and food services for Fort Dix, worked at McGuire Air Force Base and cleaned 1 million square feet of office space in Trenton.

Township Attorney Granville Magee said he recently visited the federal courthouse, which the OTC services, and found it "unbelievably immaculate."