Social services building in Paterson may be converted into affordable housing

The downtown Paterson home of the Passaic County Board of Social Services could be converted into affordable housing through a redevelopment project approved for investigation by the county commissioners.

The project as proposed would involve the New Jersey Community Development Corporation, Passaic County Community College and the Passaic County Improvement Authority and convert the former high school at 80 Hamilton St. in Paterson into a multi-family housing complex with about 77 units. Some of the housing units would be reserved for Passaic County Community College students, according to a draft letter of intent approved by the Board of Commissioners.

Known as Paterson High School, Central High School and Martin Luther King School for the first half of its life, the building closed for educational purposes in 1979. The following year it became the makeshift Paterson Police headquarters and, in 1982, city officials closed on a protracted $2 million sale to the county.

The proposed redevelopment project aims to utilize tax credit programs offered by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, including the Historic Property Investment Program and the Aspire Program to execute a "historic rehabilitation," county records show.

Initial work is due to involve financial models to determine the project's feasibility, preliminary architectural drawings and construction cost estimates. The New Jersey Community Development Corporation is expected to front up to $150,000 to fund the architectural renderings and application preparation and submission fees for the building's redevelopment.

Built for $467,000, 80 Hamilton Street is considered the oldest secondary institution in the city. County officials say it is eligible for historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places.

As Paterson's first purpose-built high school, 80 Hamilton Street brought in students from Hawthorne, Totowa, Little Falls, Woodland Park and Pompton Lakes as well as city natives such as Lou Costello in its early years. The four-story building was dedicated on June 22, 1911. Then Superintendent John R. Wilson said it should "help to make Paterson a bigger and better city," according to The Paterson Evening News.

Today, the building houses the county's Department of Social Services. However, according to the proposal for 80 Hamilton Street, that department could move to the Passaic County Jail site once that county-owned property is redeveloped.