Corzine signs Affordable Housing Law

by: Jason Springer

Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 07:34:10 PM EDT

Governor Corzine today signed legislation revamping the state's affordable housing laws. At the bill signing, Corzine praised the new law:

Through these measures, we are ending decades of unfair, unbalanced, and insufficient provision of affordable housing in New Jersey, Corzine said. The fact is, this legislation holds much promise for the thousands of New Jerseyans who want to stay in their home town - to work there and raise their families there - but simply can't afford to live there.

Here are some of the changes under the new law:

- Abolish "regional contribution agreements" that had allowed towns to meet their affordable housing obligations by paying poorer cities to build housing there.
- Create an "Affordable Housing Trust Fund."
- Charge developers a 2.5 percent fee on the value of commercial development to finance construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing.
- Require towns to commit developer fee funds to affordable housing within their borders.
- Set aside 20 percent of all state-assisted housing projects for affordable housing.
- Set aside 13 percent of all affordable housing for families earning less than 30 percent of the state's median income.
- Require all state agencies to include a housing affordability impact statement when creating new regulations.
- Establish a state Housing Commission to develop a strategic housing plan and report annually to Legislature.

Speaker Roberts pointed to past flaws that made the new law necessary:

New Jersey's affordable housing laws have failed to live up to the promise of providing home for low- and moderate-income residents while having the insidious side effect of concentrating poverty in our inner cities.
The new law will transform the state's almost barren affordable housing landscape from one of lost opportunities to one of hope and promise for thousands of families.

Not everyone is excited about the new law and all of its changes however. The League of Municipalities and 200 Mayors plan to file suit saying the new law will require towns to build beyond their limits:

What these regulations will do is turn the state into one large urban area, Bridgewater Mayor Patricia Flannery said at a news conference. What these rules are saying is every piece of land in your town is going to be built to such density, and that's the key word here, density.

The mayors will have to figure out how to make up for the revenue in their budgets from the abolition of RCA's (Regional Contribution Agreements) along with the many other changes held by the new law. Another potential issue that has been raised is because of the efforts of Jersey City Jeremiah Healy, many parts of Jersey City and Hoboken are exempt from parts of the new law. We'll have to see where this goes as it now moves onto the courts apparently.

Jason Springer :: Corzine signs Affordable Housing Law

Tags: RCA, affordable housing, Jon Corzine, Joe Roberts, League of Municipalities, (All Tags)

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Corzine signs Affordable Housing Law | 2 comments

I can understand (4.00 / 1)

why Healy got the exemption - he can get extra donations for the HCDO now from grateful builders (this is another example of Healy operating on his "progressive principles").

I can't understand why Corzine went along with it. The only benefit he'd get is an increase in wheeled donations through the HCDO.

Oh. Never mind.

by: Thurman Hart @ Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 23:36:15 PM UTC

a good law (0.00 / 0)

This new version of the affordable housing mandate is getting hyped as a genuine reform law that can make real-world differences for New Jersey's most impoverished citizens, and the specifics of the law, and its room for possibility of making quality education and good living conditions available for all, give me hope and optimism.

I've been engaging with some naysayers of this mandate, and they have flimsy arguments against it (It's socialism! They're taxing the developers!). The Mt. Laurel decision has been wrongly scapegoated by some because of the lack of enforcement and parity involved in implementing the affordable housing mandate until now. In actuality, from what I've gleaned, private development, to this point, has been rewarded with financial incentives not to build affordable housing, and this bill begins to rectify that.

What seems particularly attractive about this version of the affordable housing bill is its level of comprehensiveness: Developers are encouraged to build new affordable housing, there's an affordable housing trust fund, future housing initiatives must be in line with the affordable housing mandate, and so forth. I'm pretty thrilled with this bill, needless to say.

by: Martin @ Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 14:32:29 PM UTC