Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon. Welcome to our very, very exciting event today on what has turned out to be a very sunny day. It wasn't that way this morning when we scheduled this, but it's so nice to see
everyone. And just to get started, I'd like to introduce our mayor, Sam Jooshi. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. I am truly humbled and honored to be here today. I want to recognize some of
the folks that are also in the room with us, beginning with Commissioner Charles. Where's right there. Our Councilman Joe Coyle is here with us. Our former council woman Joyce Ship Freeman's here with
us. And our Councilman John Pointer is here as well. And as for our Assemblyman, Robert Caraben, he's here. He's going to speak afterwards as well. I'm truly humbled and honored to be here today
because we have we've done a lot in town, but when I look back, I know that when I look back when I'm a lot older and someone says, "What was something that was one of your most proud check marks to have?" Uh I will look back and
say that this project that we are announcing today is truly one of the most impactful, meaningful and heartfelt changes that uh we will have driven to completion.
And it would not have been possible had it not been for the vision and the extraordinary amount of followup from our none other than our executive director Deborah
Hurley. Uh and I I mean that this project was uh she was the catalyst for this. She had every little her hand was in every little piece of it. And it was truly because we
are here today uh because of how much you you push for this project to get done. And I say that because in the mayor's office, it's often a lot of times people will pull us in a lot of different directions. But one thing that really changed
the trajectory of this was when she said, "Mayor, you got to come here one day." And I've been to this neighborhood. I have. I've I have had a lot of friends in this neighborhood since I was growing up. I was born and raised in this town. I've
had a lot of friends in this neighborhood. But it wasn't until she said, "Come here. Check out some of the inside spaces here." And we did a whole tour around everything. And I was with Bob D, my chief of staff at that time.
And when we walked out of there, him and I looked at each other and said, "No matter what, we've got to get this project done." And it was just a mission after a certain point. It was it was something that we were determined to do.
Since the 1950s when this community was built, there has not been one large-scale reven uh renovation. That's a long time. And it goes to show you that in the world of public policym and
the world of government, sometimes it just takes a certain c certain person like Deborah Hurley to pull us closer to what we need to see and open up our eyes and make sure that we're able to impact drive something just through the finish
line. And that's really what we did. Um, but this is a total of $2.1 million being invested from our affordable housing trust fund. It will not impact taxpayers. It's $2.1 million coming from our affordable housing trust fund. And
it's a total of a $20 million project. This is the largest, most meaningful, impactful project in the three and a half years that I've been mayor so far. and they've been spending between 50 and
$60,000 annually on pipe repairs. But it was just a matter of time before we said we have to change all of this. It's never been fully revamped before. This project is going to take two to three years to complete. And I'm also proud to say that this is just phase one. As long as we
keep Deborah Hurley here, as long as we have, you know, same players in place, we'll look to continue doing the good things like this. But what's also awesome is that we're using 2 $2.1
million from our affordable housing trust fund to complete $20 million worth of upgrades. And at the same time, we are meeting our obligations with affordable
housing. 138 to be exact. So 90 units are going to be completely refurbished. And at the same time, we're going to be addressing our affordable housing uh our obligations of 138 credits. That is among I would say that is probably for
as long as I've been around that's the single largest uh takeaway towards our affordable housing units in Edison. Before I wrap up, I just want to say this. When I was when when Deborah
gave me the tour and we we decided very firmly that we wanted to make sure that this project comes to fruition, we did so with the mindset because here in Edison Township, we are all one community. We all have to look out for one another. You know, I can
tell you I thought back to many of my high school friends that I grew up with that came from this neighborhood. And everyone should be able to live in a modernized
place, home that they are proud of, and they'll be able to at the same time go to a wonderful school system that we have. and together we can drive a community forward. That's what this is all about. It's all about community making sure
that we're work we're watching out for each other. So yes, we've done a lot of the other changes whether it be some of the parks here. By the way, Minibbe Park is completely revamped and that is the largest investment in parks that we've ever made as well and it's packed all
day every day. But this this is extremely meaningful. And again, I just want to turn it over u I want to stress that this is not going to have any displaced residents. The way that this is being done over the course of two to three years, there are current vacant properties that will be able to transfer
out people. So, no one's going to lose our home. No one's going to be displaced at any point. It's just a matter of refurbishing as we go. So, I'm going to turn it over to the catalyst for all of this, Deborah Hurley. Thank you so much for being everything that you are,
mayor. Thank you. I got to hug you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm a hugger, but I'm also a crier because the $2.1 million is so significant to what we need to do here.
What does that mean? That means you're going to have front porches. That means that you're going to have washer and dryer hookups. We have right now clothes lines outside. So when people wash their clothes, perhaps in
their kitchen sinks or in their bathtubs, that's where they dry their clothes. That's something of an era that I did grow up in, but I had an option. There are no options here right now.
So before um I go even further, I just would like to say again uh Mayor Jooshi, the township of the Edison Council members, the board of commissioners of the Edison Housing Authority, our board president of Edison affordable housing,
Leslie Stville, members of HUD, who weren't able to attend for a whole host of obvious reasons. um our county commissioner Charlie Tamaro who through Hands of Hope helps us to sustain our monthly food pantry
program. I also would like to say thank you to the Edison Township Police Department because they help us keep not only our families safe but the ground safe. It's been a huge transformation over the seven years that we've been here and I couldn't do that without
them. um our RAD team, which includes the Brook Group. Thank you. And I've saved the best for last, which is the entire Edison Housing Authority team and my esteemed guests. So, thank you all sincerely for being here this afternoon.
Some of this is going to be a little repetitive, but I have to place emphasis on this because when I stand before you this evening, it's truly with deep gratitude for your continued support of the rad conversion of Robert Holmes Gardens. This is phase one of phase two.
We selected Robert Holmes Gardens because this property has had the most, I would say, wear and tear and issues with infrastructure. So it would behoove us to start with these 90 units which through our RAD
team we were able to identify and now add two more units. So we now have we will have 92 units on this property. I remember Mayor Johoshi when you first became elected as mayor and at the time
our our leazison to the board council leazison was councilwoman Joyce ship Freeman and she brought you with Bob Deal and um Pat Coyle who's not here today but um he became my team person to
follow up with and um you came here and you tooured the grounds um and in fact I'm going going to say you were here twice cuz the first time it rained and you received an update about an overview of the rack conversion. You were educated
about the process and what it would take and the amount of funds it would take. And at the time we were actually just asking for pre-development dollars. It was something like $300,000. But as time grew, we needed to
really expand what we were doing and ask for more because there were more needs that kept identif being identified. And during that you when you received the overview, you completely understood what we needed. And now,
mayor, it is now finally close to becoming a reality. Thanks to you and the council, our commissioners, and the RAD team. As everyone may know, this isn't just a construction project. It's about restoring the dignity, the comfort, and the quality of life that
our residents deserve and have waited far too long to experience. While HUD has supported us through the capital improvements program each year, the funding simply hasn't kept pace with the critical needs of a property built in
the early 50s. Since I came on board in 2018, we've had to spend on average more than $50,000 every winter just to keep heat systems running just for Robert Holmes Gardens. These funds have been
spent to patch rather than to truly fix. My maintenance team, Mark Webb, Nester Lopez, Tony Jiva, and our director of housing, Gelato Kabaka. Once the weather starts to dip, and
sometimes that's in October, sometimes it starts in September, but when it starts early and through the winter season, when it's time to cut off the heat, which is in May, is it I believe May 15th, the systems start to break down.
And during that time, my team is on call. They can tell you about the countless nights, the holidays, and cold mornings spent working side by side with plumbers and residents just to restore basic heat and hot water. And again, not
just Robert Holmes, we have Julius Engel. But I'm proud to say that the real change is coming. The rag conversion will bring major upgrades that our families not only need, but have earned. One of the most exciting changes, my personal excitement, because
I just shared with you, is those backyard clothes lines. I so want them down. I want them down. Symbolic of a older era will be removed. In their place, each unit will be equipped with internal washer and dryer hookups. A
simple change, but one that speaks volumes about respect, privacy, and monitoring living standards for our residents. Mayor, I know you and this council care deeply about our families, the residents
in Edison Township. This investment, your investment means that when we leave this property to go home, please pay attention to this. When we leave this property to go home, we will do so knowing our residents will
finally have the same basic amenities we have in our homes and our families will have the assurance that those amenities work. Thank you for your commitment to making this vision a reality. I look forward to the day when together we can
celebrate a community transformed. And now I take pleasure in introducing you to our board chair, Dr. Lennox Small. Good afternoon everyone. As I was driving here, I was thinking safe communities, high
performing public schools, access to parks and recreation, and a strong sense of community are traits that are essential to the American ideal of home. For too many, this is merely a utopian myth that is akin to a best-selling
novel or something that only can can be attained by the elite in our nation. When you do a Google search about Edison, New Jersey, it is listed as a top rated place to live and raise a family in New Jersey and the country. It
has been featured in Money Magazine, CNN Money among others, and was given an A+ rating by Niche. So, the RAD initiative has brought to light the reality for those who have felt locked out of this ideal sense of home and has provided the key
to unlocking endless possibilities for families by making highquality housing affordable and sustainable for incomes of various levels. So today marks a new and remarkable chapter in the history and legacy of
Edison Township and we are all witness today to a remarkable transformation in housing that will serve as a model for so many communities in New Jersey and beyond. So I want to publicly thank Mayor Johi, council members and there
for their support. I also especially want to thank the powerful voices of the members of this community. Your voices have been heard and acknowledged and respected. The visionary leadership of Deborah Hurley, once again, thank you
for pushing us on the board to come along with you on this ride. So today, ladies and gentlemen, the myth is now a reality. Thank you. The man, the myth, the reality. I want to
introduce the man, the myth. But he's not a myth. He's a reality. And he knows his communities very well. My esteemed colleague, Mr. William Thomas. Hello everyone. Hello everyone. All right, man.
Um, I was going to write this long, long speech and then I decided not to do that. Uh, I was just more or less going to speak from the heart. Um, I'm one of the board members here. Uh, I actually lived right on La Place.
Um, I want to say, you know, it's no surprise that, you know, we have Miss uh Deborah Hurley to get us to this point. And I'm going to say that because before Deborah Hurley, there were some uh individuals,
mostly women, from this community that more or less filled a void in this community. That's why you have a mini veil. That's why you have an Aunt B, which is your ship cream, Miss uh mother. Uh you had Miss Dillings, Miss Hutton, you had, you know, you had so many individuals that were filling
voids. Uh when at times this community was felt like we had to fend for ourselves, there were no supermarkets, there were no no stores, nothing in in I guess a a five or 10 mile radius. Um, and when we were faced
with those conditions, the people who lived here opened up their doors and they made stores in their homes. Uh, when we didn't have afterare, these women in this community open their doors and watch their kids, other people's kids. Um, when we didn't have the
resources, we made boiler rooms into rec rooms. um after school reading programs. I mean, Aunt B would snatch me by the head and be like, "You're gonna learn to read today." So, um so it was no surprise that we we we we got a a woman in here
that can more or less steer this ship and get us to the point of where we are. Um I want to say uh I want to give thanks to the board. Um you know, the battles we had in here behind the scenes. Um, we agreed to disagree at
times and we made it all happen. I want to say thank you to the council um because they had to also agree to disagree at times, but we got it done. Um, I just want everyone in here to to really truly understand. Like, it's hard
for me to even All right. I don't know what you guys really like. I don't think you understand um growing up and not having but the people around
us they they did such a great job that we didn't know we didn't have we didn't know we didn't have uh because the women in this community they covered it up for us and uh to have the opportunity to to see a change I own
clothes from no those lines. I had to watch them, too, cuz you know, people you watched them, you hung them, you watched them. You know, you made sure that your shirt was going to be your shirt. Uh um uh so, you know, I cannot wait. I
cannot wait to see it, you know, and I wish that, you know, my mom was here to see it. Uh my whole family, I think we took that whole row up there, right? I think we took the whole row. The whole back row.
All right. I think she's the el the elder of the community. All right. Not bad. Oh, it's on Beaver first, then we moved the line. I got to make sure confirmed because she knows. Believe me, she knows. Um I'm not going to hold this this great event up any longer. I just
wanted more or less to speak from the heart and to let everyone know um what it truly means to to just to see the change and and you know if if I'm needed for anything to be a part of it I'm here. Um so I want to thank Deborah.
I want to thank the mayor Sam Josie. I want to thank the council, the commissioners, you know. Um I want to thank you all. Um and I'm going to end it with that. I just want to say thank you. We give a round of applause for that. All right. I'm not pretty enough to be
crying. All right. So, this next person I'm going to call up, uh, our assemblyman. Uh, he's always there, man. Uh, uh, you can pick up the phone or you can get in touch with him. I greatly appreciate this guy, Mr. Rob Carabinci.
Good job, Billy. Thank you, Billy. It's a absolute honor to be here today seeing this actually happen. I've lived in this town for over 60 years. I went to JP JP Stevens High
School and I used to pick up my friends from high school from here back in the 70s. So I knew what it was like in the 70s. There was no road here. There was no mall here. There was nothing but woods, trees, dirt road. That's what was
here when I first came here and that was in the 70s. Um, what I see here as a collaboration of people's efforts, people having such open
minds. I've lived here again in Edison my whole life. And what I see with with Miss Hurley bringing this to fruition with this mayor and this council and working together to make this
happen. It's long overdue. However, it's happening right now. This transformation of the units, the additions is going to be an absolute change in the quality of life that you needed a long time ago,
but it's actually happening now. So, if there's anything that we as a state could ever do for you, Mayor Edison Housing Authority, the commissioners, Charlie, the council, you know, we're always here for you. And I
can't say enough how proud I am to see this and and what it's going to look like. And God bless everybody and enjoy it. Thank you. Well, assemblyman, I'm going to say you open a Pandora's box. So, I may call
you. So, you can call a Thank you. Um so to wrap things up like come full circle we have two residents here who live here now and
they would like to share some remarks and so our first resident is the Wilson and the please join come up. What what I love about the is that when I first came on board in 2018 I can't believe it's been that long. um
she saw what I was trying to do and she came over to me and I think it was around Christmas time and she said whatever you need you let me know. So I called the thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Mayor
Josh, am I saying it right? Mayor Joshy and members of the Edison Council and the Housing Authority and the Commissioner of the Housing Authority and everyone here in attendance. Again, my name is Daryus Wilson. I am truly honored to be here to speak before
you. And my journey here started about 25 years ago. When I first moved here to Edison Housing Authority, my daughter was in 11th grade. She's now 39 years old, but I'm still here and I'm still
standing. I paid high rent. I paid low rent. It just adjusted, but I'm still standing by the grace of God. I started out in apartment 11C on Lyall. I lived in a four-bedroom
apartment with my six children at the time. Three were my birth children and three were not. Three were adopted. One was my niece and two were my grandchildren. So I came here with six children and we lived in a fourbedroom apartment with one bathroom. Can you
imagine eight people in one bathroom? That was hard. Then I requested a long time ago to come to a five-bedroom. I was afforded the opportunity to move to not H loud place which is a five bedroom unit and I thank
God for that because it had allowed me not to have to go up and down the steps due to my injuries that I have. And everything here hasn't always been good. Some things been a blessing. Some things have been a struggle. Living here hasn't always be
easy. Like I said, I raised my children, my grandchildren in a four-bedroom apartment. Then my husband, he was a stable monarchy for this housing development. All all the children loved my husband. They called him Pops. And I
always had somebody at my house every single day that someone was at my house. And then my husband, he passed away in 2021 due to cancer. Not only did he has to go through that battle in 2022, I was diagnosed with
cancer and I had my own struggles and my own battles and I have my current mobility issues. Even though I look fine, I'm not fine, but I'm still standing. And I'm very hopeful about this upcoming rad. I'm
very excited that with the new renovations, I pray that the new five- bedroomedroom unit will maybe be one floor. I'm just hoping that it'll be one floor instead of two and that we could have the choice of having the one and a half bathrooms cuz one is just not
enough. And now I'd like to thank everyone for the opportunity when I had a chance to work here at Edison Housing Authority in the after school program. I was actually an employee. I got a paycheck from here and now I currently come and I help out with the
volunteer of the Girl Scouts. Let's talk about our Girl Scouts troop. The Girl Scouts troop started with a simple request. The simple request was to with Miss Regina Papazano, the principal at Martin Luther
King. I said to her, "My daughter was a Girl Scout in Biscataway. She started out as a Daisy and she finished as a senior cadet. I really think we need a Girl Scout program. And later on, I said to her again, I said, "What about this
Girl Scout program?" She said, "Miss Wilson, don't worry. We'll get it done. Even if your granddaughter's the only person here, we'll get it done." And now we are proud to say we have eight to 10 members of Girl Scouts here and we're still growing. We had looking for new
members to join us and we just thank everyone for the community support on that. And my granddaughter Ryan was born on the year that Miss Deborah Harley um came here and I told her if she needed anything I'll be glad to help her with
anything. And then my granddaughter start called her started calling her auntie Deborah and I saw the changes in the renovations even if I didn't say anything. I saw that I feel safe now because all the street lights are on. I
feel safe because now I see fire escapes on certain units. Not only that, I feel one day I'm going to need a ramp very soon. I see ramps are being installed for people who need them. So, they're taking chances here
and they're helping the community here. You see, our li our our streets are safer because of the renovations that are going to happen. But I do have one simple request. As you go up and down Loud Street, how many children are at
playing shines do you see on the other end of the side with people speeding? We have none on our end. I just ask that you put watch for our children because they speed on our end. I don't even know if there's a stop sign
at the end of the corner on loud. But those were my only requests and I thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak here and I thank you for making this neighborhood safer and more supportive and the swing sets that they
have put out there for our children. Like I said, the upgraded community features included the lights, the policing. Not only that, like I said, the cameras, they just have tried so many different things to make this area safe. And I've seen where the cops used
to come through here every single day. You hear a sire, they going to potters. They going to potters. I tell people I don't live in Potters. I live in Edison Housing Authority. See you. I live in Robert Home Gardens apartment. So, is that a project? No,
it's actually a townhouse. I got upstairs, downstairs, and one and a half bathrooms. How about you? You got a five bedroom? Yes, I have a five bedroom. And so, I thank you again. And now we're going to turn this over to our next
resident. Her name is Raja Ashar. Good afternoon everybody. Um, I kept my speech really short, but it comes from deep within my heart. I mean everything that I'm going to say. My name is Raja Alismar and I currently attend John P.
Stevens High School as a senior, but more importantly, I lived in Potters my entire life. It's the only place I've ever known. Growing up with nine siblings was difficult, but it was still a blessing. While my father worked, my mother stayed home and took care of all of us. It never occurred to me that my
family was less fortunate because the community that I experienced living here felt so positive. After school, me and my siblings would come over to the housing authority building and hang out, do our homework, and play board games. I got to see all my friends from around the block and feel at home somewhere because this after school program that
they host hosted. Years later, I volunteer at this after school program myself. But with a little bit more insight, I grew aware of the stigma surrounding this neighborhood and started to feel more insecure about my upbringing due to the opinions of my peers. I became more aware of how people
viewed the place I grew to love so much. But the stigma surrounding the neighborhood only makes me feel a stronger sense of respect for the housing authority. Against all odds, they still do their hardest to help the low-income community, holding food drives and after school programs like the Girl Scouts and the STEM
program. They've showed us time and time again that it doesn't matter where you come from, it matters what you become. Which is why I'm so grateful to the city for wanting to help this community improve. It tells me that the city does not care about the stigma around this part of town and that they want to help us just as much as the housing authority
wants to. It shows that they care about us too and want us to have a better life. It heals a part of my soul that I didn't know was hurt. Whenever I see these kids at the after school program, I get so grateful that not only do they have all these resources to help them and their families, but they'll have a
new place to live and be proud of. Thank you so much for your time. I believe, mayor, this concludes our program, does it? We have food, so we can open up the screen and everyone can have some food. We have some barbecue
and barbecue chicken and hamburgers and hot dogs, all that good stuff. Um, so the kids are here, so I know you're hungry and we're hungry and so, but thank you all. Thank you for the support. Township of Edison, the council
mayor Bob Deal, thank you. Assemblyman, my commissioners, thank you. You really made it for us. Thank you.