Newark public officials and spiritual leaders who were on hand Jan. 15 for a ceremonial groundbreaking for Mildred’s Bridge, an apartment building for prisoners who are re-entering the community, which is coming to Newark’s South Ward under a project by New Hope Memorial Community Development Corp. with support from the Profeta Urban Investment Foundation Inc. — All photos by Aaron Houston for Real Estate NJ
By Joshua Burd
A new apartment building for prisoners who are re-entering the community is coming to Newark, one that will honor one of the city’s most revered and trailblazing public servants.
Known as Mildred’s Bridge — a tribute to former longtime City Council President Mildred Crump — the structure will soon rise in the South Ward at the southeast corner of Bergen Street and Custer Avenue. That will place it directly across from the Essex County home of the New Jersey Reentry Corp., the nonprofit led by former Gov. Jim McGreevey, allowing the facilities to work in hand in hand in support of those who are transitioning back into society.
The New Hope Memorial Community Development Corp. is spearheading the new eight-unit apartment building with support from the Profeta Urban Investment Foundation Inc., as the organizations detailed this week during a ceremonial groundbreaking.
“We could not have done this without these great partners that we have,” said the Rev. Steffie Bartley Sr., senior pastor of The New Hope Memorial Baptist Church in Elizabeth, thanking Profeta’s foundation and Union County Savings Bank, which is financing the project, as well as the many Newark public officials and spiritual leaders who were on hand.
Paul Profeta, the president of the Profeta Urban Investment Foundation and the publisher of Real Estate NJ, said the Mildred’s Bridge project “has the opportunity to help an enormous number of people.” The prison system does little to help those who commit crimes because of homelessness, hunger and other struggles, he said, so when they’re released, “they still have the same problem that got them there.”
“That’s why this is so transformative,” Profeta said during Monday’s ceremony, which took place inside the New Jersey Reentry Corp. facility. “This McGreevey center helps them with their issues like addiction and helps them get a job, but there’s something that’s critical missing: If somebody comes here for help and then at night goes back to the neighborhood and their friends where they committed the crime, there’s a higher chance they’re going to commit another crime and go back to prison.
“If they go across the street to Mildred’s Bridge, where they’re going to have a nice, clean, safe, respectable domicile, they have a much lower chance of recidivism.”
Bartley, Profeta and others touted the project while paying homage to Crump, who in 1994 became the first Black woman ever elected to Newark’s city council. She won a councilwoman at-large seat 12 years later and achieved another milestone when she became the first female City Council president, a post she would hold until she resigned for health reasons in 2021.
“I think it’s an incredible opportunity to celebrate somebody that needs to be celebrated while she’s still with us,” Mayor Ras Baraka said. “And I wanted to come and wish my best on this project and whatever we can do to make sure that it happens in totality and make sure that generations to come will benefit from the fact that we are creating more housing in the city.”
Crump, who was on hand, was humble in accepting the accolades, noting that “little did I know that my life would become so rich and worthy. God has given me an opportunity to give to others and that’s what I wanted to do in my life, to do for others.”
SLIDESHOW: Groundbreaking for Mildred's Bridge
McGreevey was equally effusive in his praise of the former city council president, while highlighting the challenges faced by those returning home from prison. Of the thousands who are supported by his New Jersey Reentry Center, 42 percent “who are coming home have to couch surf,” while another 16 percent have to stay at a shelter because they often don’t legally prequalify for general housing assistance or because they don’t have ID from the state Motor Vehicle Commission.
Mildred’s Bridge will help address that issue with housing and additional services, McGreevey said, including mental health, addiction treatment and food assistance.
“What Mildred Crump has done by virtue of this building is change the dynamism of re-entry for Newark, for Essex County and for our state,” he said. “So what we do here today, my friends … is sacred. This is the first of its kind.
“What we do here today is important, what we do here today is revolutionary, what we do here today is take care of the least of our brothers and sisters,” McGreevey added. “And in God’s name, and in Mildred’s strength, I can’t think of a better way to begin the next step of this journey for re-entry housing than to lift up the name, to lift up the life and to lift up the woman who is our mother, Mildred Crump.”
Notably, McGreevey and other speakers recognized the significance of holding the ceremony on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, praising Crump’s decades of service while evoking the late civil rights icon.
“This is really a fantastic opportunity,” Profeta said. “And it just brings me back to Dr. King’s quote — “…we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny…” — so let’s all help these people, let’s do our best and let’s help them one by one to make the world a better place.”
