TRENTON, NJ - The state Senate yesterday gave final passage to legislation aimed at launching the biggest overhaul of New Jersey's housing policies in two decades. The bill was hailed as a big step forward for a state struggling to find housing for low and moderate income residents, but local officials warned it could come at the cost of higher property taxes.
And lawmakers said they will meet again in the fall to make changes to one of the bill's most controversial provisions: ending the practice of allowing affluent suburban and rural towns to pay poorer cities and towns to assume part of their affordable housing obligations. The vote was 21-16, with the minimum required for passage in the upper house. All voting yes were Democrats. "I'm gratified," said Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), who authored the bill. "We have taken a giant step toward making the dream of affordable housing a reality in New Jersey."
Roberts said Gov. Jon Corzine, who wants to create or refurbish 100,000 affordable houses and apartments over the next decade, has assured him he will sign the legislation in the near future. Affordable housing activists say rental costs have jumped 43 percent in New Jersey since 2000, leaving thousands unable to afford housing or struggling to pay rents.
The bill (A500/S1783) would use $20 million from money the state hopes to initially raise from a 2.5 percent fee on the value of commercial development to finance affordable housing in the cities. This would replace the practice of allowing wealthier towns sell up to half of their affordable housing obliga tion, a practice Roberts says concentrates poverty in urban areas.
William Dressel, executive direc tor of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said the fee won't generate enough cash to pay for affordable housing obligations re cently announced by the state Council on Affordable Housing. He said "local governments will have no place to turn but the property tax." The state currently contributes more than $100 million in state realty transfer fee revenue to fund housing.
Both Roberts and Sen. Ray mond Lesniak (D-Union), the prime sponsor in the upper house, confirmed the measure will be brought up again in the fall to consider deals already in the pipeline between suburbs and cities. "They would not be authorized in a blan ket way but they should be considered," Roberts said. Lesniak said legislators would also look at giving towns credit for apartments that are rehabilitated toward affordable housing, a move that could cut the number of new affordable houses they would have to produce.
The legislation would increase the maximum income to qualify for affordable housing from $63,000 to $87,000 for a family of four, and replace every affordable unit lost through redevelopment with another. It would create five areas, each with 25 towns, that would work collectively to provide affordable housing in their regions.
Source: Star-Ledger