Transitional home in boro seeking to expand Council to vote on zoning change at Spring House site on March 12 BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer Atransitional home for single women with children in Monmouth County is expected to undergo an expansion project to better serve the community. Plans to add eight units to the already nine-bedroom Spring House facility on South Street in Eatontown are expected to appear before the Borough Planning Board for approval. A hearing on the proposed expansion project had not been scheduled as of deadline Feb. 19. "We are still in the planning stages," Higgins said last week. "We must still go in front of the Planning Board." She added that she is hopeful that construction on the estimated $1 million project will break ground in the summer. "If all goes well, we are hoping to break ground this summer," Higgins said, adding, "But, in actuality, it will probably be next summer." The Spring House is located in an R-2 residential zone, which requires that the facility obtain several variances in order to expand the multi-family home, according to Higgins. All that could change, Higgins said, explaining that the Eatontown Council introduced an ordinance at the Feb. 13 municipal meeting calling for a redesignation of the South Street site. A redesignation of the site could eliminate the applicant from seeking any variances to expand the transitional home, Higgins said. The ordinance calls for amending Chapter 89 of the Eatontown Municipal Land Ordinances, which would redesignate the site of the Spring House to an RMF AH-2 residential multi-family affordable housing zone. A public hearing and final vote on the ordinance is scheduled to be held at the March 12 council meeting. Mayor Gerald Tarantolo said the zoning change was proposed in order to expedite construction on the eight-unit expansion, which will aid the borough in meeting its affordable housing requirement as set by the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). The borough will be able to count the additional eight units at the facility towards its COAH fair share requirement of providing 447 units of affordable housing in the borough, Tarantolo said. The borough has included the Spring House as part of its COAH plan for some time, Tarantolo added. "We have included the proposed eight units into our COAH plan and to accommodate that project we have proposed to change that zoning designation," Tarantolo said. "Right now, anything [the Spring House] does requires a variance. By rezoning … they will no longer have to seek a variance. "The borough gets a positive out of the [zoning change] and so does Spring House," he said. Tarantolo added, "The borough already has a COAH fund that we can use to contribute to projects such as Spring House's expansion, and the borough has made a commitment of $250,000 for the project." The Spring House has been operating at the South Street location for the past 16 years. It is owned and operated by the Homing Corporation, a nonprofit group based in Eatontown, which establishes transitional homes such as Spring House. Spring House began operating in 1988 as a temporary home for young homeless mothers throughout Monmouth County. Higgins explained that women live at Spring House for up to a year, and during that time they are enrolled in job skill training classes. "After a year, if the women are successful, they can get a housing voucher from the Monmouth County Division of Social Services," Higgins said. Housing vouchers are awarded to women who successfully complete their 12-month program and are financially unable to acquire an apartment on their own. "The understanding is that the women will get a housing voucher when they graduate," Higgins said. "The proposed apartment expansion will be for those women who are younger and need more skills." The Spring House also teaches its residents effective budgeting and parenting skills, proper health and exercise, how to find an apartment, job interviewing and résumé training, according to Higgins. The proposed apartment building will be used as a residence for women who have completed their one-year training program, but still require further training, or feel they are not yet ready to move out on their own. "Our residents are getting younger and younger," Higgins said. "When we started, the girls were around 28 and 29 and now they are usually between 19 and 20." Spring House residents became involved with the transitional program through the Monmouth County Division of Social Services. Residents are generally welfare recipients and through the welfare application process are assigned a caseworker with social services. Residents inform their caseworker that they are homeless and are recommended for a transitional program, such as Spring House, according to Higgins. "The first two months are the hardest for the residents," Higgins said. "When they come in, I tell them, 'You are going to hate us.'We tell them they have a curfew, and for people who are out on their own that is tough. "Usually after two months, they realized we aren't so bad," she said. Residents of Spring House pay 65 percent of their monthly welfare checks to the program to cover the cost of room and board. The women are then asked to place a portion of their welfare checks into a savings account to prepare them for the eventual move out of Spring House. "I have two teenagers of my own," Higgins said. "My daughter is 21 years old and about to graduate from college, but she isn't ready to live on her own. "These girls are 21 and have children of their own, but they don't have the same skills as a college graduate their age," she said. The residents at Spring House generally have all lived on their own at a very young age, with little support, according to Higgins. "If they let us, we can be their families," Higgins said.