NJ officials accused of hypocrisy over land use that barred homeless shelter
July 2, 2025, 6:30 a.m.
After rejecting a shelter over traffic safety concerns, Emerson, New Jersey’s Land Use Board approved housing plan for same intersection.

Homeless service advocates are accusing town officials in Emerson, New Jersey of hypocrisy after they approved the possible development of affordable housing at the same intersection where they'd rejected a homeless shelter just two months ago.
In April, the Emerson Land Use Board turned down a proposal from a nonprofit organization to convert a soon-to-be closed office building on Old Hook Road into a homeless shelter for families. At the time, officials claimed traffic conditions were too dangerous for children to reside there.
Now, the all-Republican board has approved a housing plan that includes a shopping center across the street from the proposed shelter as a possible location for multifamily affordable housing.
Kate Duggan, executive director of Family Promise of Bergen County, said the about-face suggests that concerns over her organization’s shelter “ were never really about safety at all.”
“We always thought that the town manufactured reasons to reject our proposal in order to keep what they perceived as ‘those people’ out of Emerson,” Duggan said.
Emerson, which is located less than 30 miles from New York City, is among New Jersey’s wealthiest towns. It has a median household income of more than $153,000, about 1.5 times higher than the town average in New Jersey, according to census data. The town is in Bergen County, which has the highest average home value in the state, at more than $693,000. Emerson’s average home value is about $627,000.
The resolution passed 6-1 rejecting Duggan’s proposal earlier this year cited testimony from Emerson Police Sgt. Daniel Kalyoussef, who said the intersection of Old Hook Road and Main Street was one of the busiest and most dangerous in town. He said he had observed many people make illegal left turns into the parking lot where the Family Promise facility was slated to go.
In 2024, a driver making an illegal turn at the intersection caused a car to flip and sent four people to the hospital.
But the same board made no mention of traffic safety concerns in June when it approved the housing plan at the same intersection. Emerson officials endorsed a plan for the site to be zoned for up to 234 housing units with 20% set aside for affordable homes. According to the approved plan, the site would generate 47 affordable homes.

At the same planning meeting, Kate Stutzel, a local political activist who supported the Family Promise project, asked board members why they decided “ children should not be residing and recreating in this retail commercial zone” two months earlier.
”Doesn't that sort of set up a potential challenge where someone could come in and say, the borough isn't serious about allowing affordable housing in this district, in this specific zone?” Stutzel asked the board.
Mayor Danielle DiPaola, a board member, conceded that the shopping center that’s currently there is not appropriate for residential housing.
“ Obviously they'd have to do a great deal of work on that property,” DiPaola said.
Stutzel told Gothamist she was “bewildered” by the town’s approval of multifamily housing at this location after it rejected Family Promise’s shelter across the street. “ I just don't think that's fair,” she said.
A series of New Jersey state Supreme Court decisions dating back 50 years requires every municipality to generate its fair share of affordable homes in its community for low- and middle-income families. The process is broken up into 10-year rounds for local officials to fulfill the requirements.
The state is aiming to generate 80,000 new affordable homes by 2035, with each town required to build about 150 affordable housing units during that time, although some towns are on the hook for roughly 1,000 homes. Emerson town planners have said a lack of vacant land limits the town’s ability to only generate 47 of the 170 new affordable homes that the state assigned for the next round, according to a housing plan prepared by professional planners Caroline Reiter and Robert Dare. They said the town can achieve that goal by utilizing the nearly eight acres on Old Hook Road where the shopping center is located.
Although Emerson is falling short of the 170 affordable homes that state officials originally required, the town’s housing plan asserts that town officials are following the law.
A new affordable housing law passed by the state Legislature in 2024 states that if a town determines that it lacks enough vacant land to fulfill its full obligation, it must redevelop existing property into housing to achieve at least 25% of the required number. Emerson’s plan states that the town is “exceeding” the redevelopment requirement with the Old Hook Road plan.
The question is how soon any of that housing would be built. Under New Jersey law, local officials can place “overlay zoning” on property that is currently occupied by businesses or zoned for commercial purposes, stating that residential development can take place if a site becomes available. Many towns like Emerson that lack vacant land are using this tool when crafting their affordable housing plans.
But housing advocates said they will be carefully reviewing these plans and potentially challenging them in court if they feel the towns aren’t selecting sites that have realistic redevelopment potential in the future.
DiPaola told Gothamist she couldn’t comment on Family Promise’s reaction to its affordable housing plan or if she expected the town’s plan to be challenged.
“We are just abiding by the law here and hitting all of the requirements,” DiPaola told Gothamist, adding that she believes town officials have put forth a “good plan and fair plan.”
Duggan from Family Promise said her organization has moved on from its plan to open a facility in Emerson.
“It was an unpleasant experience,” she said.
She said the organization has identified a potential new location in Bergen County for the facility but declined to disclose its whereabouts.
Wealthy NJ town rejects plan to convert office into housing for homeless families Wealthy NJ town wants to add more transit-oriented affordable housing. It might never happen.