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Five years ago New Jersey opened the opportunity for an unusual experiment in urban renewal. Atlantic City was to become the gambling capital of the East Coast. The multimillion casino construction boom of the last few years yielded is now facing a standstill. Expect that a growth in jobs and housing to that of the city's economic development. Nevertheless. Skyrocketing prices of real estate and the height of demolition and fires. Combined with the prevailing national housing prices. Have made the housing market for low and moderate income families. Practically impossible. Atlantic City was and will be a dying city without question. But is it right to bring back to life City at the expense of its residents. Mrs. Gonzales works are cooking along with many other

Hispanic residents. She recently received a notice of addiction and she's struggling to find a decent place to live. He said and I'm going to comment that on getting the fun of it. Look at that game it hit me funny but I mean I don't know that they get to see the thing that a number of people were displaced Unfortunately due to.

Bidding by those who came to build casinos so they bought up the land that made it very difficult for the city or any private developer to put up affordable housing. This city was built as a fishing village with a lot of wooden houses. The electricity in the plumbing is long since obsolete and there's not a city built of brick and stone so that these homes were rapidly deteriorating. There were many fires and unfortunately did not leave enough room enough units for people to live here. We asked State Senator Percy how the casino industry's commitment to community development here has been assured. The original Casino Control Act contained a requirement. Designed initially to ensure that the profits that the industry made would be reinvested in New Jersey. And basically the idea we had in mind at the time was that

the casinos would have an obligation to reinvest in New Jersey from their profits. And if they did not reinvest. Then the tax on gross revenues would increase from 8 to 10 percent so that the obligation to reinvest invest became known as the 2 percent reinvestment obligation because in the absence of a reinvestment their taxes would increase in terms of money what does this 2 percent and 8 percent represent for this thing. Well the 8 percent tax it has brought in. One hundred eighty five million dollars since May of nineteen seventy eight when the first casino opened. The 2 percent really hasn't brought any money in so far because the regulations are just not in place because of a number of these loopholes that have been uncovered. I don't know that I'd call that a loophole I think it reflects a different economic reality than the one we anticipated in 1977 when we wrote it. The problem with that original

formula was that it indeed is that the way we originally set it up but not enough of the casinos are eligible only two out of the eight coming under that particular formula. And the and the reinvestment obligation has never been tied down as sufficiently and as specifically as it should be in terms of exactly what kinds of investments would be eligible for this program and what would not. So that what we are now doing is reexamining that whole structure and we're going to have legislation shortly that will restructure that whole reinvestment concept to pin it down somewhat more specifically in terms of housing. To broaden it so that all of the casinos will share in the obligation and to change its formula so that it is based on net earnings rather than cumulative investment re-asked me as Barbara because you know control commissions housing specialist How could the tax credit law be implemented. Actually the law the way it's written now does not even require an implementation of a tax credit

program. Even if there were NO NO changes which have been identified as necessary the legislature is aware of them even if there were no changes in the legislation. It's entirely conceivable but that that program would not be ready to be implemented for another year or so. So at this point I would say that that would be premature for a community organization to think of approaching the industry or the commission even with a proposal for a development program or intro commission mentioned that it was the responsibility of the city to come up with different you know plan some different projects and they would only have to authorize or approve it. Well technically that's true except that I don't know that it's properly the role of the city to do that I don't think that that the city any city but certainly the city with any city has the resources of either expertise or finance. Expertise

or dollars to be able to develop a housing programme I think that's got to be done at a higher level of the county of the state. Certainly in view of the fact that the federal government is cutting back on its commitment to housing. That becomes all the more pressing. The unexpected construction of nine hotel casinos over such a short period of time brought on a precedent that the influx of people exacerbating Atlantic City's Housing Shoreditch which according to Mayor LA Thoreau could have been controlled. The Casino Control Commission when it was formed by the governor right after the passage of gambling was supposed to help the city with its housing problem. Unfortunately it turned its attention to what color the bathroom should be in the new hotels and they were supposed to make some quota as to how much housing because seniors would be responsible for that figure was supposed to be 10 percent of the number of employees they had. Now they have over 30000 employees. But the Casino Control Commission has done nothing to require them to put the housing into the city that should have

been built here. With regards to the Hispanic community the city's master plans own six city blocks as rescue then shell in the south theme let where the Hispanic population is largely concentrated. Community members expect that to the developer low income housing complex they're known as the city provided some forty thousand dollars in funds to the spine of community for their planner which they selected. However the planner was not able to provide any possible source of funding. Seems the site is located on prime land for casino construction near the boardwalk. It was stated that if no development occurred by 1983 the area could be rezoned. But EVERY with me that it wouldn't be feasible to to provide low income housing right in particular prime area. I too agree with you. So how come the city found a forty thousand dollar plan to try to establish the center row so we're

probably was not physical because that's where the Hispanic community had their dream and we were hoping to sell the dream. Whether or not the Hispanic dream comes through. One thing is certain our conflict of interest exists among the parties involved in the future of Atlantic City's housing development.