Letter: Rental Apartment Shortage

To the Editor:

As we all know, there is a severe shortage of rental apartments in Lakewood right now.

Prices are through the roof and young couples that are engaged are often unable to get an apartment by the time they are married.

Perhaps, areas that people have not considered in the past would alleviate some of this issue. Dutchtown Manor, High Point, Crossroad Manor, Andrew’s Corner, Briarpark, New Hampshire Commons, Ocean Park Village, etc. If the landlords would make these palatable to the Yeshiva crowd, this would open up many more apartments, and change the look of these neighborhoods.

C.K.

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16 COMMENTS

  1. I understand your point … but what should the landlord do ? Evict the current resident to make room for the young couples ? I don’t think the shortage has to do with these complexes not being avail. Plz explain

  2. It’s all a matter of perspective. In Lakewood where we have grown accustomed to getting a 3BR 2Bath apartment for $1000 or less, now prices are “through the roof”. But rentals in Lakewood are still cheaper than monsey, BP, Far Rockaway, Clifton, etc..
    Some of those you mentioned are section 8/HUD so it’s not so simple.
    Even the other ones, the landlords have a responsibility to their investors to maximize the NOI of each property. Right now non Jews are paying $1500 or more for 2 Bedroom apartments in Andrews corner. You want the operators to put in money to get a larger fridge, make a second sink, shabbos locks, etc without expecting a return on his investment?

  3. no matter we’re you move the price will still be the same expensive. There are way more couples getting married then apartments being built. Time to move out of town

  4. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same people that bash developers all day on the comments are now looking for apartments for themselves or have relatives looking for apartments

  5. The shortage of apartments does not justify the over-development that occurred in Lakewwod. The allowing of unlimited cul de sac building, the giving away of paper streets etc.

    Aside for the fact that much of the development was marketed specifically to people not from Lakewood (which leads to compounding the shortage of apartments) Lakewood has a limited geographical area and limited opportunity for development.

    Lakewood in itself was never going to be the solution for housing the majoroty of the frum population in America.Destroying the quality of life here did not solve the problem.

  6. To comment O. She drives with her head down. She can’t explain. I hope she doesn’t cause an accident, LoAlenu. Have a wonderful Shabbat.

  7. Dear Tree in the Forest, as an observer of the ridiculous shenanigans and opposition that usually goes on every time a developer tries to build a sensible and profitable project in Lakewood, know this: Do you know who ends up buying those houses? Or renting out those basement apartments? That’s right it’s those same neighbors who opposed it in the first place… So to Yt’s point, you can speak from your Ivory Tower but your actions will prove you wrong when it comes to where your kids are concerns when they need a place to live. Housing is not a luxury it’s a necessity deal with it

  8. Adding a few dozen more apartments to the market won’t solve this issue. keep in mind even if the landlords would like to make this change (which include making a kosher kitchen etc.) it would be a slow gradual change since they cant evict an entire building at once…
    Also I don’t see additional development helping, since: judging from the past few years of large developments. almost all of them were marketed to specific out of town communities encouraging them to move to Lakewood. I have nothing against those communities moving here and I use the services they added to this town regularly (Minyonim, Mikvah) but the point I am making is: the same developments that were granted approval on the basis of alleviating the natural growth of Lakewood, turned around and made it worse by bringing outside communities to join and make the issue worse.

  9. Isn’t the problem being solved by Lakewood developers expanding into the neighboring towns in Ocean and Monmouth County and their plans to turn all of them into frum only communities in the coming decades?

Comments are closed.