What was once a vacant lot on South 11th Street in Newark is now poised to become one of the city’s most unique housing projects, designed to address New Jersey’s ongoing affordable housing shortage.
Unlike a typical apartment building, this one will provide every child who moves in with a free laptop and four days a week of tutoring services.
Behind the development is a woman who, in many ways, is making history in New Jersey.
After fleeing war-torn Liberia, Adenah Bayoh and her family found a new home in Newark in the 1990s. At 13, she fled the violence in the African nation with her grandmother and cousins, walking hundreds of miles to a refugee camp in Sierra Leone before eventually reuniting with her parents in the United States.
She couldn’t read when she came to New Jersey and spent many mornings at Weequahic High School in Newark being tutored by her English teacher to get ahead. One of her first jobs as a teenager was at a local McDonald’s.
Now, at 46, Bayoh is a leading affordable housing developer in New Jersey and one of the largest employers in Irvington. She attributes much of her success to the opportunities she received while growing up in Essex County.
“When I escaped civil war, I came to New Jersey, to Newark,” Bayoh said in a recent interview with NJ Advance Media. “To this city, I owe everything to.”
With her new apartment complex set to open in Newark’s South Ward this summer, Bayoh has become the first Black woman in New Jersey to develop a major affordable housing project with a competitive tax credit, according to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.
She made history in 2022 after receiving a low-income housing tax credit designed to help private and nonprofit developers build affordable housing, according the agency.
Over 70,000 apartments for low- and moderate-income families have been funded statewide through the tax credits, the agency said.
Residents will be able to move into the new project in Newark in August, according to Bayoh. The complex will have 40 units with free Wi-Fi. Five units will be set aside for families experiencing homelessness and in need of transitional housing.
Affordable homes are being built on South 11th Street in Newark. Behind the project is Adenah Bayoh, who is making history in the real estate industry in New Jersey.Adenah Bayoh
Through partnerships with community organizations — including the YMCA of Newark, Vicinity and the Brick Education Network — Bayoh will also be able to provide free laptops and tutoring services to families with children.
There will be on-site health and fitness classes, counseling and childcare services, according to Bayoh.
“I’m not just putting a roof over people’s heads,” she said. “I’m thinking about how can I help the people in this community can thrive?”
“How can I break down some of the systemic barriers that leave a little kid between 3 and 6 on the street when his mother is at work?” she added.
Housing advocates have been raising concerns about the growing need for more housing options, better rent prices and stronger tenant protections as homelessness rises across New Jersey.
Nearly half of renters in the Garden State spend more than 30% of their income on rent, classifying them as “overburdened,” according to the latest Census data. And as rent increase statewide, Newark has been ranked the worst big city in the country for renters, according to a Forbes list.
“When I think about affordable housing right now, it’s really a civil rights issue,” Bayoh said. “The middle class is constantly being crushed back into the lower class.”
Bayoh credits her ability to thrive in a foreign country growing up to her parents’ ability to afford rent in Newark so they could save up to purchase a three-family home and put her and her four siblings through college.
“It wasn’t a handout,” Bayoh said. “I saw firsthand how it can help families work their way from low income to middle income.”
There have been efforts to address the housing issue across the state. Newark, which has some of the highest rates of chronic homelessness in the state, has issued permits for more than 6,500 affordable housing units since 2014 and was recently awarded a $4 million federal grant to create more.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka said a project like the one Bayoh is leading helps remove financial hurdles for lower-income homes.
“Adenah’s gratitude radiates across our city and beyond, as she establishes businesses that both hire and serve residents,” Baraka said.
The mayor also shared his gratitude for her and her commitment to the city’s community.
“In a nation of immigrants, Adenah Bayoh is an exemplar of intelligence, determination, and grace, who expresses her gratitude by sharing her success with the people of our city. We, in turn, are grateful for her,” Baraka said.
Before becoming a trailblazer in affordable housing, Bayoh was one of the youngest IHOP franchise owners at 27, opening her first location in Irvington.
“At IHOP in Irvington, she runs a free breakfast program for children under 12 and hosts dinners for families in need during the holidays,” Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss said in a statement.
Bayoh was also one of the developers behind transforming the former Irvington General Hospital site in 2012, which had been vacant for nearly a decade, into a 114-unit residential building, the mayor added.
She also owns multiple soul food restaurants, including three Cornbread Farm to Soul locations in northern New Jersey.
Not far from where she grew up, Bayoh still resides in Essex County with her two children.
Getting to this point in her career did not come without struggle. She has faced challenges because of her background as a Black woman and immigrant, she said.
“Nothing has ever come to me without a struggle,” Bayoh said. “Having no generational support, having no financial background, has been challenging.”
“But, yet, it’s a path worth taking,” she added.
And, she’s not finished yet. Bayoh said she plans to bring similar affordable housing projects, like the one in Newark, to other underserved communities in South Jersey, such as Atlantic City and Camden.
An artistic rendering of a new affordable housing complex coming to South 11th Street in Newark. Adenah Bayoh
Stories by Nyah Marshall
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