ORANGE’S NEW HPC CHAIR ISN’T AFRAID TO TAKE ON CITY HALL

Unlike her predecessor, Leight isn’t an architect, she is a real estate lawyer — and that makes a difference.

Unlike her predecessor, Leight isn’t an architect, she is a real estate lawyer — and that makes a difference.

There have been many books written about urban renewal and its harms. But Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove’s Root Shock was the first to tell the story from the perspective of a clinical psychiatrist.

Last August, Douglas Farrand, the buildings and grounds manager at the HUUB, discovered that their prized possession was shattered.

The family was evicted last month from their moldy, roach-infested apartment in Orange. Now they are wading through a complex web of bureaucracy that the most vulnerable encounter when they are in dire need of housing.

The 41-year-old mother and her five children stormed Orange City Hall this morning to beg for help finding housing after being evicted from their two-bedroom apartment where she has lived for three years.

The city condemned the building at 65 South Harrison Street and tenants were forced to flee that same day.

Broken doors and elevators. Burst pipes. Collapsed ceilings. A homeless couple having sex in a storage closet. Since Platinum Management took over 75 Prospect Street, life inside the historic 10-story apartment building has become unbearable, tenants said.