CITY DELAYS DECISION ON UNEMPLOYED HOMEOWNER EMERGENCY AID OFFICE.

The jury is still out as the city pushes to continues its persecution of the Mission's right to access its administrative office in Egg Harbor City and effectively further delays financial aid to unemployed homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

Rather than be accused of mishandling the issue in Zoning Board's decision to close or not close the Mission's Egg Harbor office, the City essentially pushed off its decision pending court ruling leaving millions of dollars in federal emergency aid on hold for the city and Atlantic County.

The lawyer for the Mission argued that in the 4,000 similar trials he has personally taken to court, the city is attempting to apply the law incorrectly – in all his experience, he has never seen the statue attempted to be applied in this manner anywhere in the state of New Jersey.

Rather than acknowledge that the City made a mistake in it's handling the case and dropping their earlier rulings, city officials make the political move to push the decision off on the lower court and upcoming trial.

By making the upcoming court case more about clarification over legal interpretation, this move provides some cover in damages litigation if the city looses its case in court. It would also minimize City Administration exposure with voters if the court were to move against its earlier decisions, commented one Mission representative. It defies logic. There is no way the city actions make sense.

This effectively allows the City to look squeaky clean in a matter that is clearly without precedent. The city clearly understand that the AC Rescue Mission office in Egg Harbor City is an administrative office only for the soul purpose of dispense Federal Emergency Aid to homeowners who recently lost their jobs and are unable to make rent, mortgage or utility payments.

But the City Administration prefers to make this an argument about homeless people in Atlantic City invading their city and not the real facts. Their argument might appeal to certain prejudices in this veiled attempt to cover up the real issues but most people will see through their argument.

One thing is clear, the city had it in their power to end the debate and avoid further embarrassment last night by dropping the issue all together but they chose to continue their course of action.

But more importantly, as the city attempts thwart Emergency Federal Aid from being distributed, they are in fact, snubbing their noses at federal lawmakers as well as unemployed resident homeowners.

One has to wonder about the logic of that thinking as elections dates creep closer. If you know anyone in Public Office, you might want to let him or her know what you think about the plight of the unemployed in Atlantic County.

In the meantime, please keep the work of the Mission and the plight of the unemployed homeowners in your prayers and continue to spread this petition around. By obtaining more co-signers the Mission , NJ representatives will eventually have to weigh in on the matter. As it stand right now, one has to wonder about how serious they really were in making aid available in the first place, if a single city can obstruct their program without merit or consequence.

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