Queen Latifah returned to Newark, New Jersey, and attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for the new affordable housing development she helped plan for more than a decade. 

Latifah, dressed in a lime green pants set, was captured wearing a hard hat while holding a shovel alongside builders Life Assets Development and GonSosa Development. The rapper actress is also co-president of BlueSugar Corp, a real estate development firm responsible for creating the townhouse development, northjersey.com reported.

Rise Living has planned to have 76 units, including 20 three-family townhouses starting at $1,800 a month. 

“I’m a little bit emotional that we got walls up. We got windows,” Latifah said as she stood where the townhomes would be constructed. 

The Living Single star, whose legal name is Dana Elaine Owens, said she started the investment process in 2006. However, the project development wasn’t publicly announced until 2016, and construction was supposed to begin two years ago, but several issues caused a delay for all parties involved.  

“It took a while, but we stayed with it, and it changed, and it morphed, and we stayed with what we needed to do, and the timing is right right now for this place to rise,” Latifah said, referring to the project’s name, RISE Living. The development’s name is also an acronym for “Rita is Still Everywhere,” a tribute to the 52-year-old’s late mother, Rita Owens, who died from scleroderma in March 2018.

“I’m proud to be from here,” Latifah said while accompanied by New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and other leaders.

“I grew up around here playing in West Side Park, a block away,” Latifah recalled. “My grandfather’s hardware store was blocks from here. I drove past this block. I saw what was needed on this block, houses that weren’t lived in. Some were really dilapidated, and so I thought, ‘Why not here?’”

According to a 2021 study from Rutgers Center on Law, Inequality, and Metropolitan Equity, affordable housing has been an ongoing issue in Newark for years. The city needs roughly 16,000 low-rent units to shorten the gap, while 60 percent of Newark renters spend more than a third of their income to maintain housing. 

According to the study, an affordable rental unit for a Newark household costs $763 a month, $330 less than the city’s median market rent. In addition, the total amount is $600 less than what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development deemed as fair market rent. 

While researchers completed the study after the COVID-related eviction ban had ended, Essex County had more than 19,000 pending eviction cases at the end of March. Meanwhile, Newark had a large portion of eviction cases in the state. 

Those interested in applying for housing in the development would meet the following criteria: a single-family earning up to $55,950 would qualify for housing. In contrast, a family of four would be eligible for a household income of $79,900 per year, according to 2021 HUD data.