By Christina Paciolla - Gloucester County Times - September 2, 2010

WOODBURY-- Colonial Park apartments here will receive a $1.88 million affordable housing grant to help finance the rehabilitation of the 200-unit Evergreen Avenue senior living complex.

U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, D-1st Dist., of Haddon Heights, visited the complex Wednesday afternoon to announce the grant and others totaling $4.8 million that went to four other housing complexes.

"This grant helps create good and safe homes for the men and women of our community," Andrews said.

This presentation, scheduled several weeks ago at the Woodbury apartment building, comes more than a week after a fire broke out on a fourth-floor apartment Aug. 22. According to Samuel Hudman, executive director of the Gloucester County Housing Authority, 56 residents have yet to return to their homes Ð 30 are staying in area motels and 26 are living with family or friends. There were no fatalities.

"God was smiling on you that day," Andrews said.

Andrews also honored the city's fire department, among others, for its first-response efforts during the fire. A proclamation was given to Laura Steinmetz, executive director of Gloucester County's Chapter of the American Red Cross, for its efforts to shelter the displaced residents the night of the fire.

The nearly $2 million grant will be used to "repair or replace just about everything," Hudman said.

Some of the bigger projects include a new heating and cooling system, new carpets, new kitchen cabinets, new showers, a new roof, and if there's money left over, solar panels for the complex.

The building is 30 years old, Hudman said.

"We are doing an entire renovation so it will last another 30 years," Hudman said.

The grants are provided by the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York's Affordable Housing Program and will help create or rehabilitate 457 units of affordable housing in Camden, Woodbury and Glassboro.

Emanuel Community Development Corp. Inc., was awarded a $620,000 grant for the Whitney Crescent Project, which will help finance the construction of eight new buildings in Glassboro. The new buildings will provide 79 units of rental housing for very low-income families.

Other grants went to the construction of nearly 200 apartments in Camden.

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, also the county's freeholder director, said these grants "make life so much easier for the residents."