Housing Choices Showcase Bus Tours
Rolling through neighborhoods throughout New Jersey
(Top Left: The Monmouth County Bus Tour, on May 7, visits homes built by Western Monmouth Habitat for Humanity in Freehold; Top Right: Network Executive Director Diane Sterner, with Rev. Bruce Davidson of the Anti-Poverty Network to her right, addresses Mercer County Bus Tour participants on May 28 outside Project Freedom in Robbinsville; Bottom Left: Paterson Mayor Jose Torres speak to participants prior to the Passaic County Bus Tour on June 5 in Paterson; Bottom Right: Hudson County Bus Tour participants, on May 27, visit All Saints Community supportive housing units in Jersey City.) See more photos.
2009 marks the Network’s 20th anniversary of building community in New Jersey from the ground up! To celebrate this milestone, Network members and allies working together as county-based Advocacy Teams are planning approximately a dozen tours around the state that showcase community economic development projects and the impacts they are having in these localities. This project complements the A-Teams’ overall agenda to encourage decision makers to foster policy solutions and dedicate resources to build homes, create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods around the state.
These tours are based on a series of successful bus tours conducted by our partners at the Morris County Housing Alliance, which has held three previous tours. Their tours have received wide media coverage and have helped to educate key local leaders about the need for housing in their area and to combat myths about what housing people can afford really looks like.
A-Team members are actively planning their events to educate municipal and state leaders, as well as members of the media, about housing needs and opportunities in their county. Each tour will kick-off at a venues sponsored by a Network member, feature a few opening remarks and depart to a tour that highlights walk-through and pass-by viewings of projects. The A-Teams are choosing a mix of projects to spotlight, including past works and future plans, and aim to foster discussion about housing design and placement in order to dispel myths that inhibit housing development.
Successful showcase bus tours have already taken place in Monmouth, Hudson, Mercer, Passaic, Morris, Essex I, Middlesex, Union, Essex II, Cumberland and Burlington counties. Tours will begin again in the spring and a schedule will be posted here.
