Hopeworks & Millennial Housing Foundation

Increasing access to affordable homeownership and higher wage employment for young people in Camden, NJ

January 1, 2021

11:10 am

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Affordable housing and a unique pathway to homeownership program that elevates our youth from facing homelessness to building long term wealth through homeownership.

Elevate Our Youth

Not enough affordable housing, as well as housing services, available for those in need in Camden County

Around 60,000 evictions are pending across the state, data from the state judiciary shows. Matt Shapiro, president of the New Jersey Tenants Association, said those likely represent only a fraction of evictions that will be filed once the moratorium ends.

“Most landlords haven’t filed evictions because of the lockout moratorium,” Shapiro said. “If we don’t do something, you’re going to see 200,000, 300,000 pending evictions.”

Eviction filings declined dramatically in 2020 after the moratorium went into effect, according to judiciary data. From April through the end of the year, 46,245 evictions were filed across the state, down nearly 60% from the 112,888 filed during the same period in 2019.

If evictions had not been on hold, it’s likely the number of 2020 evictions would have been much higher than previous years. One estimate said almost one-third of renters failed to pay their rent fully and on-time in July.

Universal Initiatives (Millennial Housing Foundation) joined forces with Hopeworks in Camden City, New Jersey, to provide young people between the ages of 18 and 26 years old with hope for a promising future. Our collaboration provides underserved young people with affordable housing and a unique pathway to homeownership program that elevates our youth from facing homelessness to building long term wealth through homeownership. By working together, Hopeworks and UI help young people break through cycles of generational poverty by accessing higher wage employment and equity through homeownership.