JON BON JOVI & MAYOR CORY BOOKER CUT RIBBON IN NEWARK

December 8, 2009

Newark, NJ

by Roxanne Lord

Jon Bon Jovi, Mayor Cory Booker, Kenneth and Maria Cole were some of the good samaritans on hand last Tuesday to cut the ribbon on a brand new 51 unit apartment complex in South Jersey. The HELP Genesis JBJ Soul Homes will be home to low income families and will also provide special care and housing to HIV/AIDS residents. Ruben Mayor, (Black man in above picture) the complex's first resident, suffers from diabetes and is HIV positive. He said that he feels very good that he will be able to have his own apartment now. He used to live at Broadway House, a nursing home type of facility for continuing care.

This project led by leaders like Governor Jon Corzine, Mayor Booker as well as philantropists in New York and New Jersey is intended to be a major part of  the redevelopment of the area around Rafael Hernandez school. "With affordable housing and an integrated facility, with post-acute care AIDS services, this housing complex will connect resdients with ecah other, their community and a continuum of care. We are grateful for the support of Jon Bon Jovi, Mayor Booker ad the Municipal Council for supporting our efforts to improve the quality of life for Neward residents," said Council Member Ramos.

Twenty five percent of the apartments will have tenants living with AIDS.The other seventy-five percent will be low income mostly minority families with their children and teenagers. When asked if this will pose a threat to innocent and sometimes gullible teenagers and families who do not have the disease but may now live in the same building with many struggling with the disease; the Executive Director of the African-American Office of Gay Concerns, Gary Paul Wright, also a Board Member of Broadway House for Continuing Care, a facility that provides housing and special care services for people living with HIV/AIDS, maintained that "HIV does not spread from casual contact and we cannot discriminate against people with HIV."

Elle Decor has donated time and resources to furnish and decorate a two-bedroom model apartment for the project, which will be shown in ELLE DECOR's March 2010 issue. Chairperson of HELP USA, Maria Cuomo Cole, the wife of designer Kenneth Cole,  is proud to be part of "this dynamic public private partnership." HELP USA remains committed to developing services and to providing enriched  permanent housing to working families and people living with HIV/AIDS.

In the wake of the White House's National discussion at Columbia University, moderated by Rosie Perez, earlier this month, from which mulitiple requests and comments for housing for HIV/AIDS patients, it is timely that philanthropists like Jon Bon Jovi, Maria Cuomo Cole and elected officials are stepping up to the plate to provide much needed housing and services.

For video of this event, please go to www.youtube.com/bornkool