Can you imagine not having proper working heat in your home for three years?

That’s exactly what the residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Stanley Holmes Village have been dealing with for the past three years.

We opined three years ago, would it happen for a second straight year. It did.

Last year we wrote, would it happen for a third consecutive year? That still remains to be seen.

The lack of care and concern demonstrated by Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and the Atlantic City Housing Authority has been difficult to watch.

There has not been the required sense of urgency to resolve the many issues that have plagued these underserved public housing residents.

These residents have also lived in deplorable living conditions, with cockroaches, other insects rats and other rodents.

It’s all so inexplicable, because countless millions of dollars has been available to fix the many problems over the years.

Matt Doherty, the former executive director of the Atlantic City Housing Authority blew the whistle loudly on the rampant mismanagement and political corruption at this agency.

United States Congressman Jeff Van Drew has been focused on bringing help to the residents.

Van Drew has applied significant pressure on the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for years.

Van Drew also has met with the affected residents to show them respect and that their plight will not go by unnoticed.

Marty Small says that this year will ve different.

Well, it was 36 degrees last night and there’s no working heat available for some residents.

Small and the Housing Authority held a press conference to share their plan for this winter and beyond. Here it is in their own words:

  • Deliver more dependable heat and hot water to residents.
  • Facilitate the voluntary transfer of residents to better living conditions.
  • Prepare for future redevelopment.
  • Enact a replace, not repair strategy.
  • Funding approach focused on building upon prior investments.

Talk has proven to be cheap under Small. Only time will tell if any of the above will ever happen. If past is prologue, it doesn’t look good.

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