ATLANTIC CITY — Atlantic City Housing Authority Executive Director Tom Sahlin testified last month in Superior Court that the authority was moving to install a new heating system in Stanley Holmes Village by Oct. 1, as repeatedly ordered by the court over the past year.
But documents sent to the attorney for about 130 residents of Stanley Holmes suing over unsafe and unhealthy conditions there show the authority has done no such thing.
In fact, it plans to forcibly move 126 households out of their apartments — mostly in Village 3 — and into other authority properties or into the Section 8 voucher program by Oct. 1.
The moves would be made on an emergency basis, whether families want to move or not.
The existing problematic heating system will be tweaked but not replaced.
All Stanley residents will be moved out by Oct. 1, 2025, according to the plans, and the authority to date has no redevelopment plan, according to a resolution passed by the board Thursday without discussion, and without providing any details about it to the public.
That will leave the city with 420 fewer affordable housing apartments than it now has, with no plans to replace them anytime soon.
“ACHA is yet again failing the residents. Sixteen months after the initiation of this litigation that exposed the heating emergency at SHV, ACHA is repeating its conduct of the last two years,” attorney Olga Pomar of South Jersey Legal Services wrote in a letter to Superior Court Judge John C. Porto.
Fourteen of the 31 buildings making up the 420-unit complex will be emptied this fall, according to the plan, and the remaining 17 buildings will be emptied by Oct. 1, 2025.
Atlantic City Housing Authority member Charmaine Hall fought for transparency and residents rights, clashing often with the board's leadership. On Thursday, she said she intends to step down.
The authority also plans to rely on the existing problematic heating system for another year for the remaining families, making only some repairs to it.
“Mr. Sahlin testified at the plenary hearing on June 5, 2024 that ACHA has now finally retained an engineering firm and is moving forward with installing a new heating system by October 1, 2024 in compliance with these orders,” Pomar wrote in a Monday filing to the court.
“The proposal that ACHA’s team put forth, however, defies the order and instead of presenting a plan for a new replacement heating system, recommends displacing some of the residents, vacating certain buildings, installing sensors, and repairing “main pipes” of the existing heating system ― the same heating system that ACHA has acknowledged on numerous occasions is incapable of providing reliable and adequate heat,” Pomar wrote.
Pomar asked Porto to reject the authority’s latest proposal and require the Housing Authority to install a decentralized heating system in all the buildings expected to be occupied Oct. 1.
Most of the authority’s other properties to which families would move also have problems with inconsistent heat and hot water, water intrusion, mold, pest infestations and more.
Sahlin has not responded to several questions texted to him Monday and Tuesday, including how the authority will move families out of Stanley Holmes by Oct. 1, when the authority is under a court order not to forcibly move anyone.
Pomar said the authority’s attorney, Rick DeLucry, told her he would ask the judge to allow forcible moves, but has not yet filed paperwork in court to do so.
The documents provided to Pomar say the plans were made by a “a ‘team” of engineers, construction managers, purchasing agents, public housing experts and redevelopment consultants” assembled by Sahlin. They do not provide the report from the architectural and engineering firm hired by the authority, Thriven Design.
The Atlantic City Housing Authority has not complied with court orders dating to December 2022 because it had no architectural and engineering firm to prepare plans and bids for replacing the old heating system and gas lines, Executive Director Tom Sahlin testified Wednesday.
On Thursday, the authority’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution without any discussion adopting a Stanley Holmes resident transfer plan. Sahlin did not provide details about what was in the plan when asked at the meeting.
After the meeting, Sahlin said the resolution would be posted to the authority website, but it has not been posted.
“The transfer plan proposes initially downsizing SHV by relocating 126 households out of 14 buildings (not identified by address) by October 1, 2024 and the remaining 182 households by the end of 2025,” Pomar wrote to the judge.
“The ACHA has not determined a redevelopment plan, if any, for the Stanley site,” the document states. “The process to obtain HUD approval, site plan approval, environmental approval, as well as securing financing will take several years for a first phase of a (new) construction redevelopment project.”
Pomar has filed motions for months trying to get Porto to enforce his orders and has asked him to impose financial sanctions on the authority for missing many deadlines to provide information, repairs and more.
Porto has ordered the authority three times to replace the heating system. On Aug. 18, 2023, he required the authority to submit a detailed plan for replacement of the system, which it never submitted.
On Nov. 2, 2023, Porto ordered the authority to immediately start the process needed to replace the system, and a Feb. 9 order set an Oct. 1 deadline for replacement of the heating system.
DeLucry agreed to each order, never moving to ask for changes.