Housing

One of 10,000 abandoned properties in Camden

An Overview

Well before the national housing crunch, the city of Camden's housing market was strained and experiencing enormous hardship.  This is demonstrated in many ways the more obvious are, the 4455 properties with outstanding tax liens owned by the Tax Lien Finance Corporation; the 6,504 vacant housing units; and the 3,000 abandoned properties, and the fact that only 1/3 of Camden's housing stock is owner-occupied.[1] Given these challenges there is a massive need to stabilize current homeowners and invest in the existing owner occupied homes.  The Camden Home Improvement Program is a way to invest outside funds into an existing home which has a rippling affect to the surrounding homes, encouraging others to invest in their own homes and ultimately improve the entire neighborhood.  

7 years ago, CCOP churches began to push for the state to provide more resources to Camden because people in all of our church-communities were saying that they weren't getting adequate neighborhood services (policing, schools, public works, etc.)

CCOP helped organize 1500 people to meet with Gov. McGreevey to push for the recovery legislation that brought new leadership & $175 million in new state funds for Camden. After the first 3 years of the recovery, CCOP churches asked residents across the city how they felt the recovery was going; most said they hadn't seen much improvement in their neighborhoods.

CCOP organized 500 people to meet with the head of the recovery effort, State Treasurer John McCormac, to ask him to work with us to bring the benefits of the recovery into the neighborhoods.  He agreed to support funding for a new, citywide home rehab program to give recovery funds to homeowners across the city - to reward the people who have hung in there during the tough times and to support positive change in the neighborhoods.

For the past 18 months, CCOP members have met with state officials to create the $7.5 million Camden Home Improvement Program, which will provide rehab funds to 300 families across the city.   The City of Camden has agreed to commit an additional $350,000 to the program. Every neighborhood will get its fair share of the CHIP rehab funds. 

Camden Home Improvement Program

If you are interested in the CHIP program click on the above title to visit the official CHIP Home Page

CHIP Highlights

Phase 1: 127 Homes Rehabed

Phase 2: (Currently underway) 73 Homes Rehabed and counting

Phase 3: (Currently underway) Approximately 100 homes to be rehabed

 Over 3.7 million has been invested in Camden Homes as a result of CHIP

[1] Numbers and percentages taken from 2006 American Community Survey located at http://factfinder.census.gov and the U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey