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In 1937, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which set aside federal funding to provide temporary shelter to those who had been displaced by the effects of the Great Depression. That legislation set up Public Housing administered by city and county governments and Indian Housing administered by tribal governments.
In 1938, the Common Council of the City of Summit passed an ordinance establishing the Housing Authority of the City of Summit. The Summit Housing Authority was an outgrowth of the city's Substandard Housing Board and its efforts to address local Depression era housing problems.
These problems included sections of the Summit downtown which were becoming increasingly rundown and unsafe as well as growing slum problems in other areas of the city.
1948 Advisory Committee
In 1948, an advisory committee on low-rent housing surprised a meeting of the City's Planning Board with a recommendation to spend upwards of 2 million dollars on an ambitious slum clearance project. The plan was submitted following a survey of substandard housing which determined that the worst of the City's housing stock was located in the Weaver Street, Glenwood Place, Chestnut Street, Morris Avenue, Cedar Street, and Railroad Avenue sections of town. The report described the housing in these areas as "abominable", "unhealthy", and a "blight" on Summit itself.
1968 Urban Redevelopment
It was not until 20 years later, in 1967, following highly destructive riots in the cities of Newark and Plainfield, that the Summit Housing Authority was reestablished by the Summit Common Council. In 1968, a resolution was passed authorizing a Cooperation Agreement between the City of Summit and the Summit Housing Authority for the development of approximately 90 units of low-rent housing. By 1969, Edward (Ted) Olcott, as chairman, and a dedicated Board of Commissioners had acquired Federal approval of Summit's "Workable Program for Community Improvement", the first step in securing federal assistance for the development of low income housing in Summit.
Keeping Commitments
Due to the unique demographics of Summit, there was, initially, little optimism regarding the City's ability to garner Federal support for it's redevelopment efforts. At that time, an urban redevelopment project was financed by an arrangement between the local public agency and the federal government which called for local contributions, Federal advances and loans, and ultimately, federal capital grants.
Though Federal assistance was ultimately secured, a group of enlightened Summit residents, through private fundraising efforts, pledged an initial sum of $600,000 toward the construction of the Glenwood Place housing project. Glenwood was projected to cost $900,000 at the time.
Hardworking, committed Housing Authority Boards of Commissioners and staff members and progressive City of Summit Common Council members worked together throughout the years to complete three low-income properties in Summit for a total of 195 low-income housing units:
Glenwood Place - Completed in 1972
Weaver Street - Completed in 1979
Vito A. Gallo Building - Completed in 1986
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