Housing + Environmental Justice
Housing +
Environmental
Justice
We’re working to impact 250 units of housing — rehabbing rental units, cleaning up vacant and abandoned properties, reducing lead exposure and asthma triggers, helping seniors stay safely in their homes, and creating pathways to homeownership.
We do this work three ways: through direct Housing Counseling, advancing Housing & Real Estate Development, and fighting for Housing Justice in Clinton Hill and beyond.
The Work
Housing Counseling - When You Need Help, We're Here
Facing eviction? Behind on your mortgage? Dealing with a landlord who won’t fix what’s broken? We’ve got you. Our Housing Counseling Center works one on one with residents navigating housing instability and poor housing conditions — connecting them to resources, advocating on their behalf, and linking them to legal services when it’s time to fight back. Nobody should lose their home without a fight, and we make sure they don’t have to fight alone.
Aging in place shouldn’t mean suffering in place. Our Senior Home Repair program provides critical safety repairs and energy efficiency upgrades for older adults in Clinton Hill so they can stay in their homes with dignity, comfort, and independence. We’re talking grab bars, fixed steps, better insulation — the kind of repairs that keep seniors safe and keep their bills down. Because nobody who built this neighborhood should be forced out of it.
Owning a home in Clinton Hill is possible, and we’re here to help make it happen. Our Homebuyers Education program helps residents navigate the path to homeownership while protecting the wealth families have already built. We assist with estate plans and wills so that when the time comes, your home stays in your family — not in the hands of someone offering you less than it’s worth. Build it. Protect it. Pass it on.
Housing & Real Estate Development - Doing it Right
Development is happening in Clinton Hill whether we’re at the table or not. We choose to be at the table. CHCA partners with mission-aligned developers to make sure that what gets built in this neighborhood actually serves the people who live here — affordable units, in-fill housing, and real pathways to homeownership for residents who have been priced out for too long. We’re not just watching the neighborhood change. We’re helping shape what it becomes.
Not all developers are the same. Some are from here, know this community, and are committed to building something that lasts. Our Developers Collaborative partners with housing developers in Clinton Hill and builds the capacity of local, minority developers for collaborative, in-fill housing projects. We’re investing in the people who are invested in us — because the best development for Clinton Hill is development led by people who actually know and love Clinton Hill.
Big real estate gets all the attention, but Clinton Hill runs on small landlords. Owner-occupied property owners who live on the same block as their tenants, who have skin in the game, and who want to do right by their community. Our Small Landlords Group engages landlords in the South Ward with resources to help them be better property owners, stay compliant with state and local ordinances, and advocate collectively for what owner-occupied landlords actually need. Good landlords make good neighborhoods. We’re here to support them.
When new development comes to Clinton Hill, residents deserve a seat at the table — not a notification after the fact. Development Watch trains residents to navigate Newark’s planning and approval process so they know what’s being proposed, how to engage, and how to make their voices heard. We collaborate with developers for community input, and we advocate for or against projects based on what the neighborhood actually wants. This is your neighborhood. You should have a say in what gets built in it.
Housing Justice Programs - Policy, Power, People
Your home should not be making you sick. Healthy Homes engages and educates residents in identifying and reducing health hazards in their homes, schools, and community — with a focus on lead exposure and asthma triggers that have been hitting Newark families too hard for too long. Because a healthy neighborhood starts with healthy homes.
Vacant and abandoned properties don’t just look bad — they bring down the whole block. Beat the Blight is a resident-started campaign to clean up, secure, and beautify long-term vacant and abandoned properties across Clinton Hill while pushing for their active use. This campaign was born from the neighborhood, and it’s driven by the neighborhood. Because we refuse to let blight define us.
The people most impacted by the housing crisis are the ones leading the charge to fix it. The Housing Justice Action Team brings together neighbors, community organizations, and local stakeholders to review, strengthen, and advance the housing programs and policies that directly affect their lives. We’re talking affordable housing, housing quality, vacant properties, and homeownership — everything that shapes what it means to live in Clinton Hill.
Knowledge is power, and our Housing Justice Advocates are putting it to work. We recruit and train residents to become informed voices on affordable housing, housing quality, vacant properties, and the policies that shape what Clinton Hill looks like for the next generation. These are your neighbors, showing up at city council meetings, community forums, and wherever decisions are being made — speaking up for Clinton Hill, armed with the facts and the fire to make change happen.
Get involved:
Healthy Homes Campaign
Housing Program Manager
housingprograms@clintonhillaction.org
Newark Stays Eviction Protection
Director of Housing Justice
housingjustice@clintonhillaction.org
Homeownership Workshop
Senior Housing Counselor
housingcounselor@clintonhillaction.org
Quality of Life Advocate
qualityoflife@clintonhillaction.org
