STAFFORD – Housing affordability has become one of the biggest concerns facing older adults throughout Ocean County, where many retirees rely on fixed incomes that have failed to keep pace with rising living expenses.
The issue surfaced repeatedly during a recent Ocean County Senior Services public hearing, where advocates and service providers described seniors living in vehicles, staying in storage units and struggling to afford rent, utilities and medical care.
Ocean County Senior Services Director Maria LaFace noted that older adults living primarily on Social Security often have little ability to absorb sudden increases in housing costs because they cannot simply increase their income.
“This is not how the golden years were intended to look,” said LaFace.
For residents of Summit West, an 18-home age-restricted rental community in Stafford Township, those concerns are a daily reality. They say rent increases over the last several years have created financial hardship and uncertainty for many who believed they had found an affordable place to spend their retirement years.
Summit West renters report lease increases as high as 20 percent in one year. Some say they have depleted savings, accumulated debt, delayed purchases and relied on assistance programs simply to remain in their homes.
Fixed Incomes Meet Rising Costs
For Nicholas Ferrara, 78, retirement was supposed to focus on spending time with family and caring for his wife, Hillary.
The couple moved to Summit West approximately 12 years ago after relocating from Massachusetts. Ferrara, a retired biomedical engineer, said the community offered an affordable place to live near family members who could help support them as they aged.
Today, the couple faces mounting pressure from rising housing costs and uncovered medical expenses. “We’re on a fixed income,” Ferrara said. “Social Security, a small pension. The cost-of-living increase was only a few percent, but everything else keeps going up.”
More than the financial burden itself, he worries about the toll the stress takes on his wife. “She doesn’t have any bandwidth left,” Ferrara said.
Ferrara’s concerns are echoed throughout Summit West. Many of the residents’ experiences have been shared publicly through a series of online videos posted under the banner “Summit West Stories,” documenting the challenges they say rising housing costs have created within the community.
Trivan Properties LLC operates both Summit West and nearby West Bay Village, two age-restricted communities located just a short distance apart in Stafford Township.
Licensing records group the properties together as a mobile home park, despite differences in how residents occupy the homes.
Last year, New Jersey enacted legislation limiting annual rent increases in many manufactured-home communities to 3.5 percent. The law applies primarily to land-lease communities, where residents own their homes but pay rent for the land beneath them.
That is how West Bay Village operates. Residents own their homes and lease the lots, making them eligible for the state’s rent-cap protections.
Summit West operates differently. Residents rent both the home and the land from Trivan. Because they do not own their homes, they are not covered by the law’s protections.
The distinction is particularly frustrating for Summit West residents because West Bay Village is located only a few lots away. “I can almost throw a stone and those guys are all protected,” resident Beth Mann said. “It’s the same houses, same owners, same over-55 vulnerabilities.”
Mann has been one of the lead organizers working with Summit West neighbors to keep their homes affordable.
For residents, the result is that two neighboring retirement communities owned by the same company are subject to different rules when it comes to rent increases.
Representatives of Trivan Properties LLC were contacted for comment regarding residents’ concerns and reported rent increases but did not respond prior to publication.
A copy of a rent increase notice provided by a resident cited increases in utilities, real estate taxes, supplies and materials, maintenance and other operating expenses as reasons for the higher rents.
Several residents disputed those explanations, noting that tenants are responsible for paying their own electric, gas and water bills, with Trivan covering sewer service. Residents also contended that maintenance of the aging homes and common areas has been limited.
Taking Their Concerns to Town Hall
As rent increases continued, residents organized and brought their concerns directly to Stafford Township officials.
Residents attended council meetings, invited local officials to visit the community and met with township representatives to discuss what they viewed as a growing affordability crisis affecting older adults.
Their efforts resulted in the adoption of Stafford Township Resolution 2025-305. The resolution urged state lawmakers and Governor Phil Murphy to support legislation addressing what it described as “unconscionable rent increases” and stated that township officials supported efforts to protect renters from significant rent hikes while making housing more affordable and reliable throughout New Jersey.
Residents said the resolution represented acknowledgment that local officials understood their concerns. A group returned to the council meeting last month to plead for help from the local municipality as they face another rent increase.
Township Administrator Matthew von der Hayden has indicated that Summit West presents unique challenges because it is a privately owned rental community and not a traditional affordable housing development. Township officials continue to explore available resources, although the protections residents seek are governed largely by state law rather than local ordinance.
Beyond Summit West
The concerns raised by Summit West residents mirror conversations taking place throughout Ocean County and the state as a whole.
State officials are also expressing concern. Earlier this month, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs reported that eviction filings are the second-leading cause of homelessness among people entering the state’s homeless services system, accounting for nearly one in four cases.
For many Summit West residents, the issue extends beyond the latest rent increase. They say they are seeking stability rather than special treatment – the ability to remain in the homes and communities they chose for retirement.
As Ocean County’s senior population continues to grow, the concerns raised in Summit West may increasingly be heard elsewhere. Residents worry that rising housing costs and a shrinking supply of affordable options could leave older adults with few alternatives if they can no longer afford to stay where they are.
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