Rental housing remains a concern for Elberon residents

Rental housing remains a concern for Elberon residents
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — Residents of the Elberon section of Long Branch met last week at the annual Elberon Voters and Property Owners Association meeting to discuss topics of interest to the community.

The topics included erecting stop signs and traffic lights, paving roads, and speed enforcement, but the topic that elicited the most reaction was the issue of problems associate with rental housing.

Issues with rental properties have been a long-standing problem for the community, particularly involving college student renters attending Monmouth University in West Long Branch.

"My concern is absentee owners in Elberon and all the rentals that go on," said one of the more than 30 residents who crammed into the Elberon Library on Sept. 3.

Residents voiced their concerns, citing problems with parking, partying and garbage, which one resident said has led to having rats in her yard.

Long Branch Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr. and council members Brian Unger, who is an Elberon resident, and Michael DeStefano attended the meeting,

Woolley and Unger spoke of a pending lawsuit between the city and a group of landlords, which began when Long Branch and neighboring Ocean Township passed ordinances to limit the number of certificates of occupancy (CO) for single-family homes.

"There is a case pending in the Superior Court, and the other side is landlords, and they've been stalling the case for two years," Unger said.

"We had met with Ocean Township on this, and we had agreed to move forward limiting the number of COs a single-family home could obtain," Woolley added.

The ordinance Long Branch passed limiting the number of COs ultimately resulted in the lawsuit.

"We were sued by a group of absentee landlords," Woolley said. "We are being defended by the city attorney and an insurance company attorney.

"We had it thrown out of federal court and it was brought to Superior Court," he added.

Woolley said there is a Superior Court precedent from nearly 30 years ago that stipulates that 13 people living in the same house could be considered a single family.

The ruling is one Woolley doesn't agree with.

"I think that's totally ludicrous," he said. "We have to comply with that. It's a difficult situation because while you can zone the single-family use, you can't zone ownership."

Woolley discussed an ordinance that provides that landlords are subject to large fines after three violations.

He also defended the Long Branch Police Department, saying they do the best they can but they need help.

"We ticket them [renters], we arrest them, but we need to be made aware of when these problems occur," he said.

Woolley added that the Long Branch Police Department works hand in hand with the Monmouth University police.

Unger, however, was not necessarily happy with the efforts of the university.

He said he wants to take the approach of having residents of Long Branch, Ocean and West Long Branch work with the university to try to regulate and handle problems with renters more effectively.

"My own personal view is there should be a committee formed to work on these college-related and rental-related issues," he said. "There should also be a three-town approach; there is a lot more political power with that approach."

Unger proposed the idea in April to Ocean Township Mayor William Larkin.


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