Forced relocation harms seniors, communities

I'm hoping you might let me share with your readers the following stark findings of the N.J. State Legislature with regard to the displacement of senior citizen tenants caused by conversion of rental property to condominiums:

"2A:18-61.23. Legislative findings and declarations:

The Legislature finds that research studies have demonstrated that the forced eviction and relocation of elderly persons from their established homes and communities harm the mental and physical health of these senior citizens, and that these disruptions in the lives of older persons affect adversely the social, economic, and cultural characteristics of communities of the state, and increase the costs borne by all state citizens in providing for their public health, safety and welfare. These conditions are particularly serious in light of the rising costs of home ownership, and are of increasing concern where rental housing is converted into condominiums or cooperatives which senior citizens on fixed limited incomes cannot afford, an occurrence which is becoming more and more frequent in this state under prevailing economic circumstances.

The Legislature, therefore, declares that it is in the public interest of the state to avoid the forced eviction and relocation of senior citizen tenants wherever possible, specifically in those instances where rental housing market conditions and particular financial circumstances combine to diminish the ability of senior citizens to obtain satisfactory comparable housing within their established communities, and where the eviction action is the result not of any failure of the senior citizen tenant to abide by the terms of a lease or rental agreement, but of the owner's decision advantageously to dispose of residential property through the device of conversion to a condominium or cooperative."

Barbara Gonos