Christie: Fort Monmouth Housing Will Be Determined By Lottery

Governor Chris Christie said at a press conference this afternoon that utilities will be connected to homes at Fort Monmouth this weekend and that New Jersey residents that were displaced by Hurricane Sandy should be able to start moving into the temporary housing sometime next week.

The governor said that “some type of lottery system” being developed by the Department of Community Affairs will be employed to select residents who will move onto the fort, because the demand of tempory housing is expected to exceed the supply.

The governor went on to explain that officials are assessing the need for housing this week by interviewing people still in shelters and surveying local officials.

Christie called the press conference to announced that he met with the four leaders of the legislature, Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, JR and Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, who all agreed that the states efforts to recover and rebuild from Sandy will not get bogged down in partisanship.

Christie’s press conference can be viewed here:

Watch live streaming video from governorchrischristie at livestream.com

UPDATE

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon told MMM that resident selection for temporary housing must comply with FEMA rules and that specifics of when, how and who will be moved into Fort Monmouth is expected to be worked out within a few days.