Princeton Community Housing - PCH

🧩 Puzzle delivery! 🧩 Solving puzzles doesn’t just provide a mental workout—it can improve short-term memory, encourage collaboration, lower stress levels, and, most importantly, it’s fun! Many of our senior residents at Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House are avid puzzlers who dedicate much of their time to puzzling together, and expressed a lot of excitement seeing all of these new additions to the collection. Huge thanks to the donor who had gifted this haul ✨

🖼️ Thank you to everyone who had attended Arts Council of Princeton ’s grand opening of their ALL SHAPES, COLORS, AND FORMS / TODAS LAS FIGURAS, COLORES Y FORMAS exhibit last Saturday, July 13th!

The artworks featured are created by Princeton Young Achievers (PYA), an afterschool program run by the Princeton YMCA for Princeton Public Schools students, from kindergarten through 5th grade. One of the three locations, the Crimmins Learning Center, operates out of Princeton Community Village. Many of the young students at PCV have been featured in similar exhibits in the past, and many were featured once again for this current exhibit running until next Saturday, July 27th ✨

To learn more about the exhibit itself, please read TAPinto’s article linked here: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/princeton/sections/arts-and-entertainment/articles/icymi-princeton-young-achievers-become-young-artists-at-arts-council-exhibit?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0uHrqw4M9ep32KYLp_YFg0fjQjMoQHvEgIbDSe2x3NQm60b77ZVMf-f-M_aem_yvmvpmTi5kEw8teSdln29A

In just a few short months since our friends at SHUPP constructed this raised bed next to Princeton Community Village’s Ted Vial Clubhouse, our garden has begun to flourish! Thank you once again Send Hunger Packing Princeton, Arts Council of Princeton, and Princeton YMCA‘s Princeton Young Achievers program for their collaboration in creating both a beautiful and nutritious new addition to the PCV neighborhood ✨🌱

✨💙 HUGE THANKS to the volunteers from the S&P Global Princeton team who had come out to celebrate an Independence Day picnic with our residents at Elm Court & Harriet Bryan House! Although this annual event was put on pause for the past couple of years due to Covid, the enthusiasm for the celebration from our senior residents remained resilient. We’re so grateful to have friends and family of residents join in, a team of very attentive volunteers, delicious food catered by Parker Health Group and an incredible musical performance by Carmen Marranco. Happy 4th!

“Housing and shelter are essential pillars of society, and having a safe place to sleep is a fundamental human need. We’re sorely disappointed that the Court today failed to recognize that locking someone up for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go is cruel and unusual punishment. The majority’s inability to see this as a violation of the Eighth Amendment misreads how inescapable homelessness has become for a record setting number of American families. Here’s what we know: homelessness is a direct result of a lack of affordable housing. And until we create and preserve more affordable homes, arrests and other phony fixes will only drive more people deeper into homelessness and despair."

Please read Enterprise Community Partners's full statement, regarding the SCOTUS decision to criminalize homelessness, linked below.

BREAKING: In a deeply disappointing decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect people against cruel and unusual punishment for sleeping outside, even if they have nowhere else to go.

This decision doubles down on phony fixes like ticketing and arresting people experiencing homelessness will only make it harder for them to secure employment, housing, or government support.

Let’s be clear, fines and arrests won’t end homelessness in America — housing will.

Read more on the blog: https://bit.ly/4eHPiIW

🌱✨ A huge thank you once again to everyone that joined us at Princeton Community Village and Herrontown Woods on Sunday, June 23rd in the very high heat for PCH’s Foraging for Affordable Housing event, featuring guest expert forager, the Wild Edibles Lady! Our two sold out sessions enjoyed learning about the various ecosystems at work, from inside the woods and to the fair housing realm. If you were unable to join us, please consider following us on Facebook and Instagram (if you have not already), and signing up for our quarterly newsletter to be updated with similar events that may pop up in the future: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/8v4W1Rt/pchnewsletter

& thank you to Princeton Record Exchange and the many individual locals in town for supporting our event with sponsorships. Your support means the world!

‼️GREAT NEWS‼️ We added a second session to our Foraging for Affordable Housing event on Sunday, June 23rd to accommodate more plant and fair housing enthusiasts! Join us at our 2:30 PM plant identification tour to:

🌱 Explore our town’s rich array of plant species with an expert forager Debbie Naha-Koretsky (AKA the Wild Edibles Lady) and celebrate its vibrant diversity.
🌳 Wander through the enchanting Herrontown Woods, lovingly managed by our friends at Friends of Herrontown Woods.
🤝 Connect with fellow Princeton residents, including our own PCV community members.
🏡 See the stunning new Jim and Fannie Floyd House, the result of the collective effort put forth by our community to foster a more affordable and inclusive Princeton.

Link to buy tickets here: http://weblink.donorperfect.com/ForagingForAffordableHousing ✨🌱

EDIT: We added a second session to our tour! Tickets are still available to buy for a 2:30 guided plant identification tour session!

🌱🏡 Foraging for Affordable Housing is SOLD OUT!

A huge thank you to everyone who purchased tickets and helped spread the word about this exciting event. If you’d like to join our waiting list for a chance to participate in our plant ID tour, please email Farzana at [email protected]. We’re thrilled by the overwhelming interest!

Are you interested in supporting this event and future initiatives to engage the next generation of fair housing advocates? Consider sponsoring us alongside our friends at Princeton Record Exchange by visiting our sponsorship portal here: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E355847&id=41

To learn more about the event, please see our press release on the May 29, 2024 issue of Town Topics here:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6061dcf095c535463e0988e4/t/6659d70359786a49b7fa3dce/1717163779835/Foraging+for+Affordable+Housing+-+Town+Topics+5.29.24.pdf

A huge thank you to Walkable Princeton for their article showcasing details of the Jim and Fannie Floyd House at Princeton Community Village! We’re beyond grateful and filled with so much pride whenever we see the results of our community’s efforts in creating a more inclusive, fair, and vibrant Princeton shared. Please scroll to view the photos, and find more details by clicking the following the link: https://walkableprinceton.com/2024/05/30/inside-the-new-floyd-house-at-princeton-community-village/

‼️💥 REMINDER: Don’t miss out! On Sunday, June 23rd, PCH will be hosting an exciting, guided plant identification tour right next to the stunning Floyd House, led by foraging expert Debbie Naha-Koretsky, aka The Wild Edibles Lady! HALF of our tickets are now sold, so we urge you to snag your spot today here: https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E355847&id=41 🌿🌱

A warm welcome to Princeton Community Housing’s new board chairs and trustees! At PCH’s 56th annual meeting, held at the Institute for Advanced Study, one of our founding sponsoring organizations, board members unanimously elected James Demetriades, CEO of Penn Medicine Princeton, as president of the PCH Development Corporation, and Karen Jezierny, a community volunteer and retired public affairs director at Princeton University, as president of the Community Board. Both will serve two-year terms. Re-elected for another two-year term as vice president of the PCH Development Corporation is Kate Farewell, with Karen Delk serving a two-year term as vice president of the Community Board.

New trustees of the PCH Development Corporation include Christopher Costa, Jonah Lansky, Ashley Lyu, and Merilyn Rovira. The Community Board welcomes Jeff Hoisington and Gene Rosenblum as their newly elected trustees.

Congratulations to all our elected members! To learn more about all our trustees, please visit https://www.pchhomes.org/board-of-trustees !

Greetings from our budding garden enthusiasts! Little helpers from the Princeton YMCA Princeton Young Achievers journeyed all the way over to the Princeton Community Village’s Ted Vial Clubhouse to decorate the new community garden bed constructed by Send Hunger Packing Princeton! We’re so grateful to Teacher Veronica from the Arts Council of Princeton for guiding them in this project, and to our community for nurturing an environment that celebrates meaningful collaborations like this one 🌻🏡

What are the benefits to volunteering? PCH’s Director of Mission Advancement, Kate Bech, offered her thoughts in last month’s issue of Princeton Perspectives published by Princeton Online.

In an increasingly pessimistic world, we owe it to each other, and ourselves, to resist it. We must commit to optimism, curiosity, and humanity. Volunteering is just one of the ways we can tackle our negative bias. Contact us via our website if you are interested in volunteer opportunities available at PCH.

https://princetonperspectives.com/the-benefits-of-volunteering-are-often-greater-than-one-expects/

Pictured is a volunteer group from Bloomberg who organized a St. Patrick's Day Games Afternoon with our Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House residents last March!

The Elm Court & Harriet Bryan House community garden is officially open 🌱🏡 Our garden is beloved among our skilled residents, and we’re excited to see the abundance that will flourish in just a few months!

Huge thanks to our friends at Orantes Landscaping and our dedicated team of maintenance technicians for collaborating for the massive task that is clean up and prep before it is ready for our residents to enjoy. Happy Spring!

Happy National Fair Housing Month! To learn more about the work we do for fair housing in our community, please visit our website at pchhomes.org 🏡✨

‼️📣 Direct call to young plant and foraging enthusiasts 📣‼️ Save the date for Sunday, June 23rd, 2024, and secure your spot now for an exciting plant identification adventure led by Debbie Naha-Koretzky, aka the Wild Edibles Lady, right in our backyard at Princeton Community Village! Join us to:

🧭 Explore our town’s rich array of plant species with an expert forager, and celebrate its vibrant diversity.
🌳 Wander through the enchanting Herrontown Woods, lovingly managed by our friends at Friends of Herrontown Woods.
🤝🏽 Connect with fellow Princeton residents, including our own PCV community members.
🏡 See the stunning new Jim and Fannie Floyd House, the result of the collective effort put forth by our community to foster a more affordable and inclusive Princeton.

Spots for our tour are limited, so snag yours today by clicking the following link: http://weblink.donorperfect.com/ForagingForAffordableHousing ✨🌱

Big thanks to our friends at Zufall Health for joining us at Princeton Community Village’s resident town hall meeting last week! Their information session preceding our meeting offered our residents many options available to them to access high-quality, affordable health services. These info sessions are vital in helping to break down the barriers to healthcare access, paving the way for a stronger, healthier community 💪🏥

We are so honored to have been in attendance for Housing & Community Development Network of NJ ‘s 35th anniversary luncheon! Thanks to an unexpected raffle win of two tickets, five PCH representatives were able to enjoy an afternoon in the company of a larger network of those of us sharing the belief that housing is a fundamental human right. Gratitude to HCDNNJ for their camaraderie, hard work, and unwavering commitment.

The first photo includes Board Members Karen Jezierny, Daniela Bonafede-Chhabra, Karen Delk, and Sara Just, and staff member Farzana Fariha. The second photo includes speaker Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

Huge thanks to AIA New Jersey - The New Jersey Society of Architects for featuring the Jim and Fannie Floyd House for the 2024 NJ Architecture Week Photo Competition, and to Thriven Design for their continued partnership and the submission of this photo! The Floyd House's 25 stunning new affordable homes is the result of the collective effort put forth by our community to foster a more inclusive, fair, and vibrant Princeton. We are always happy and feel immense pride to see it shared!

Princeton, NJ Government AIA West Jersey The American Institute of Architects Thriven Design WIANJ

PCH wishes you a joyous end to the month of Ramadan, and an Eid al-Fitr filled with compassion, love, and the spirit of unity! 🌙✨

🌷🌱 Exciting springtime update from PCV! With the leadership and dedication from Send Hunger Packing Princeton and support from our friends at Princeton Human Services, we have successfully introduced a newly constructed community garden bed at Princeton Community Village! The bed is located right next to the Ted Vial Clubhouse and will open opportunities to begin sowing the seeds that we are certain will flourish. Scroll through our photos and see the entire process from this morning!

Thank you Send Hunger Packing Princeton and Princeton, NJ Government for making our community a little greener, more sustainable, and much more vibrant 👩🏽‍🌾

🍀🌈 Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day! Our Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House residents celebrated this year with an afternoon of games and treats, kindly provided and hosted by the wonderful employees volunteering their time from Bloomberg. We are incredibly grateful for our volunteers’ time and effort in putting together such a fun event, and we are hopeful that our winners are still enjoying their bragging rights!

Happy Women’s History Month! Today, we are celebrating Valerie W. Haynes and Alice K. Small, our presidents of the PCH Community Board and the PCH Development Corporation (PCHDC) Board, respectively, with a Board Spotlight ✨ Thank you both for your continued leadership, expertise, and commitment to our neighbors in Princeton. To learn more about our board members, please visit their individual board profiles located on our website at pchhomes.org/board-of-trustees !

"Princeton’s Black population was 1,862 in 1940 and stood at 1,742 in 2020 — though over this period, the white population nearly doubled in size from just over 9,000 to 17,446 in 2020. Princeton, despite a much lower overall population, had a larger Black population in 1940 than in 2020. While the town was about 16 percent Black in 1930, it is just over five percent Black today."

The Daily Princetonian explores the dramatic decrease of Black neighbors in Princeton over the past few decades, citing rising costs of living and a lack of affordable housing as major drivers in the article linked below.

Black community in historically Black Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood shrinks The data show that Princeton’s Black community is indeed shrinking, both in Witherspoon-Jackson and across the town, though Princeton’s Hispanic and Asian communities have grown markedly over the same period.

SO exciting!!! We look forward to attending Housing & Community Development Network of NJ's anniversary event this coming April!

Please consider learning about the great work this organization has done and attending this event with us by clicking the following link: https://www.hcdnnj.org/anniversary

Congratulations to our Member Survey raffle winner, Princeton Community Housing - PCH!

Watch PCH's winning moment in our Facebook Live video: facebook.com/share/v/mpr8wqenvEvZDyBC/?mibextid=WC7FNe

We are very honored to have been included last night as a panelist on the discussion of the past, present, and future of affordable housing at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs! Included in the evening was a chance to view an incredible exhibit made by the independent Princeton Affordable Housing Project. The exhibit detailed the history of affordable housing in Princeton- making sure to include the crucial and difficult work done by our Black and Indigenous neighbors throughout the many years. Though the exhibit ends today, February 23rd, we encourage you to click the following link that will take you to the online version: https://sites.google.com/view/princetonaffordablehousingproj/home

From left to right are panelists Fern Spruill (chair of the former Princeton Civil Rights Commission), Edward Truscelli (Executive Director of PCH), and Matt Mleczko (a Ph.D candidate at the University), and moderator Anastasia R. Mann (lecturer and founding director of Princeton School of Public and International Affairs )

💪✨ A wonderful turnout to the pilot class kicking off a new Chair Fitness program created in partnership with Princeton YMCA! Led by Instructor Suzette, residents have access to weekly hour-long sessions over 8 weeks at Princeton Community Village’s Ted Vial Clubhouse, focusing on enhancing flexibility, stability, and overall health. Such collaborations are the result of our insistence to not only develop and maintain secure and affordable housing, but to also link residents with as many resources available in Princeton as possible. If you are a resident interested in learning more, please send us a DM!

💘💌 Many thanks to the for organizing and hosting yet another successful Valentine’s Day Tea Party at Elm Court/Harriet Bryan House! We are so glad that this is a tradition that our residents are able to look forward to every year. Please visit stonybrookgardenclub.com/about to learn more about their mission to promote community and conservation 💐 Happy Valentine’s Day!!

🧧🐉 Happy Lunar New Year from your friends and neighbors at PCH! Our residents at Elm Court and Harriet Bryan House continued their annual celebration this year, historically an effort led and organized by a resident. For a short while, we were unsure if this resident would have the capacity to carry this tradition. Fortunately, our staff teamed up with volunteers from S&P Global to ensure the continuation of this cherished tradition! We’re so grateful for their efforts and the time spent eating a delicious meal, enjoying a traditional performance, and strengthening our community. We wish you all a joyous and prosperous Year of the Dragon! ✨

From PBS Newshour: Rental prices are unaffordable for a record number of Americans with half of all renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Stephanie Sy reached out to renters across the country to hear how these soaring prices are impacting their lives and discussed their issues with Whitney Airgood-Obrycki.

Half of American renters pay more than 30% of income on housing, study shows Rental prices are unaffordable for a record number of Americans with half of all renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, a...