Veterans left stranded amid squalor and crimes

Watchdog Report:
Veterans left stranded amid squalor, crime at Somers Point apartment complex

Findings No signed contracts exist that would bind The Gates at Somers Point owners to the promises they made to turn the complex into a safe, veterans-only complex.
The complex owners say they were counting on housing vouchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist their tenants in paying rent. However, only 60 of those vouchers are available for Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties combined.
The complex has a history of failed inspections with both the state and the city of Somers Point. Problems, such as damaged sidewalks and inadequate storm drainage, that have persisted through multiple inspections.
The Gates at Somers Point is the highest crime area of the city, with 515 calls for service recorded last year.
Community Quest, the nonprofit that spearheaded the Veterans Point project, pulled out last year, leaving residents who had signed leases with the complex owners behind.

7:01 am, Sun Apr 8, 2012.
By WALLACE McKELVEY
Staff Writer

The Veterans Point project at The Gates at Somers Point, billed as the first permanent housing complex for veterans in the state, has collapsed in the past year, leaving a handful of veterans living in squalor.

Vehicles driven through the complex trundle over a parking lot cratered with potholes and past young men loitering in front of apartment buildings. Many of the entrances to those buildings are unlocked, allowing residents and nonresidents to come and go freely. The surveillance cameras over the doorways feed video to nowhere.

Each apartment comes with its own set of problems: cabinets are not secured to the walls, caterpillars and other insects crawl across surfaces, doors damaged by previous tenants go unrepaired, floors are warped by leaking pipes, structural cracks and water stains mar the ceilings.

Local officials were optimistic the crime-ridden complex could be rehabilitated when its Great Neck, N.Y., owners — WWW Associates LLC, the principal of which is Kenneth Weinstein — partnered in 2009 with Community Quest, the Egg Harbor Township-based nonprofit that spearheaded the project. But nearly three years later, the initial group of veterans is gone, only a few dozen of the 202 units were ever renovated and Community Quest has disavowed any further involvement, leaving behind residents who had signed leases with the complex owners.

Despite those leases, no signed contracts exist that would bind The Gates owners to the promises they made to turn the complex into a safe, veterans-only complex. Community Quest was unable to say how many veterans are still living at the complex; Weinstein did not respond to the question.
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