History
In the late summer of 1938, before the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development or even the Public Housing Administration had entered the halls of Congress, Gerald B. Lambert built and transferred 10 small homes on Franklin Avenue to the fledgling organization that would later become the Princeton Housing Authority (PHA). It was an experiment to determine if there was a way to create affordable homes for workers in Princeton that could remain affordable into the future. As far back as the 1930s, affordability in Princeton was a problem for many.
Mr. Lambert built the homes on land he owned and transferred the mortgage of Franklin Terrace to the PHA with the goal that the PHA pay it off with the shelter rents collected from the 10 homes. Mr Lambert hoped at the end of the loan the PHA would own the homes and be able to continue offering them as affordable housing options. The 1937 Wagner-Steagall Housing Bill provided a mechanism for this transfer and with just 10 homes, the PHA began serving residents of Princeton.
Franklin Terrace was a success and in 1948, the PHA built another 10 homes on the lot next to the Franklin homes. This new community, Maple Terrace, was a self-subsidized project by the PHA. The experiment had worked and at that time, Princeton residents understood the need and value of providing housing for all residents.
The success of Franklin and Maple Terraces continued and the federal government finally realized that intervention was needed to help communities who didn’t have a Gerald Lambert. In 1953, the PHA built 50 family units on Clay Street with a 40-year bond issue from the Public Housing Administration. This new community, Hageman Homes, was across Witherspoon Street from the Franklin and Maple Terrace communities and firmly established the PHA in the Witherspoon Jackson neighborhood.
The three initial communities were all designated for families. As the years passed, it became clear that there was also a need for housing seniors and disabled residents. In 1967, with the fanfare of a Merit Award from the National Convention of the American Institute of Planners, the PHA opened a 50-unit senior/disabled community. Lloyd Terrace was located on Spruce Circle right off of Harrison Street and near the Princeton Shopping Center which housed the 60,000 SF Bamberger’s Department Store.
With the passing of another decade, affordable housing remained in short supply and continued to be needed. In 1978, the PHA undertook their most ambitious project yet – 100 units designed by an up and coming young architect and Princeton University graduate by the name of J. Robert Hillier. Young Mr. Hillier already possessed incredible vision and built a senior/disabled community as well as a family community. The Redding Circle communities were settled into rolling hills full of beautiful trees and magnificent boulders and also very near to the Princeton Shopping Center. Mr. Hillier was so successful in combining his housing units in the natural setting that to this day, residents enjoy sitting out at the community benches watching the wildlife and enjoying the trees and flowers.
In the early 1990s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development realized that continuing to provide communities with the financial support necessary to subsidize housing was becoming prohibitively expensive. They gave housing authorities notice and the subsidy program was stopped for all new projects by 1998. This left the PHA short of housing and with few options to build more.
Another 16 family units were built with a Low Income Housing Tax Credit program in 1999. Land for Karin Court was donated to the PHA and they were able to secure financing to build these townhouses.
Eighty six years later, the PHA owns and operates 216 units of affordable housing. The Franklin Maple homes and property was sold to the town in 2023 to enable Princeton to undertake replacing those 20 units with 160 units of affordable and workforce development units. The project will address much-needed housing for the “missing middle” and provide the PHA with an opportunity to exit the self-subsidized housing model. Much like HUD experienced in the 1990s, self-subsidy is a costly model and one that was ultimately stifling future development or redevelopment by the PHA.
In the next 5 to 10 years, the PHA aims to build new housing as well as rehabilitate or redevelop our aging pre-war inventory. To learn more about our plans and hear about our progress, please join us at our monthly Board of Commissioner meetings via Zoom on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 6:15 PM.
