NJ Assembly vote abolishes affordable housing program

NJ Assembly vote abolishes affordable housing program

Dec 14th, 2010

Members on both sides of the aisle in New Jersey's Assembly came to an agreement yesterday on a reform proposal that will abolish the state'saffordable housing program.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Jerry Green, was the subject of controversy in the state legislature for months and received criticisms from state Republicans, affordable housing advocates and Governor Chris Christie. Despite the opposition, the overhaul was approved Monday by a 43-32 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate, and if it receives approval there, it would be sent to the governor's desk for signing.

The proposal underwent a number of revisions before receiving Assembly approval. At its heart, it eliminates the Council on Affordable Housing, which had been in place for decades and used Supreme Court rulings from the 1970s and 1980s to mandate all New Jersey communities provide low- and moderate-income residents withaffordable apartments. The bill abolishes those regulations, exempting towns in which at least half of schoolchildren qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches from abiding by affordable housing minimums. There are 71 such towns currently in the state.

Meanwhile, towns in which 20 percent to 50 percent of students qualify for those lunches will be required to make 8 percent of their housing stock affordable. In towns where fewer than 20 percent of children qualify for reduced or free lunches, 10 percent of the housing supply must be affordable.

The bill's latest iteration also eliminates a 2.5 percent fee that would have been applied to new non-residential developments in the state. Proceeds from that fee would have funded affordable housing construction, but Governor Christie previously told reporters that he would veto any bill with such a clause, claiming it could discourage companies from building in New Jersey. Instead, lawmakers included a 1.5 percent fee on residential developments that are without affordable units.

Republicans say the new bill sets unfair quotas that would allow developers to circumvent the rules and only build a handful of affordable apartments in each new project, reported the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Additionally, affordable housing advocates said allowing some towns to avoid buildingcheap apartmentscould hurt the state's affordable housing supply. The Philadelphia Inquirer cited data from the Fair Share Housing Center which showed the legislation would cut housing obligations by 71 percent.

"There are going to be a lot of towns that have to do little or nothing for the next 10 years," Kevin Walsh, the center's associate director, told the Inquirer.

Walsh told the Courier News last week that the new legislation would also eliminate the housing burden for some of the state's most affluent towns. "The bill lets municipalities off the hook with doing a fraction of their obligations under COAH," he said.

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