For about as long as the issue has been debated, New Jersey housing advocates have had their own ideas about the best ways for the state to make housing more affordable.

Some support California-style laws that aim to build and convert thousands of units of new housing. Others call for rental reforms, including a tax on luxury apartment owners and streamlining of application fees for apartments.

Yet despite the long controversy over the state Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decisions, which require all communities to provide their “fair share” of affordable housing, some say the court’s rulings largely succeeded at spurring affordable housing development.

“The Mount Laurel system is the envy of most states because it produces more homes that people can afford,” said Staci Berger, president and chief executive officer of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. “The housing crisis is a national phenomenon, and New Jersey has some of the best laws and policies and programs on the books to try to address that.”   

The Legislature earlier this year enacted new procedures for determining municipal affordable housing requirements based on the process the courts have been using for the last nine years.

Next month, the state Department of Community Affairs is supposed to release details of regional housing needs that municipalities will have to work into their local zoning. It’s still uncertain how well the process will work, given all the variables and the stakes, but other actions are underway as well. There is also a pending legal challenge to the reforms, filed last month by a number of municipalities.

How two mayors approach the issue

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who has taken several steps to increase the number of units and affordability in the city, said the state must use both carrots and sticks to get compliance.

“The federal government is providing grants for cities, municipalities around the country that have inclusionary zoning, that changed their zoning laws,” Baraka said during a June forum with other gubernatorial candidates. “The state should do similar things to begin to encourage municipalities that have inclusionary zoning, to get them also to work with other municipalities so they’re not confined to themselves and complain that it costs too much.

“But then you have to have some force behind it as well, and you have to say some of these things are not allowable in the state of New Jersey,” he added.

A bill that passed the Assembly earlier this year would require the Department of Community Affairs and the Economic Development Authority give priority consideration for such competitive grant programs as Main Street New Jersey and Neighborhood Preservation Program to municipalities that have met their Mount Laurel obligations.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, another candidate for governor, offers a similar approach in his housing plan, saying the state should fund schools, roads and other infrastructure needs for municipalities that meet their fair-share housing obligations, while towns that don’t fulfill theirs “should have less access to state money.”

He also supports incentivizing municipalities to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to meet their fair-share obligations and extending requirements to municipalities like his, Hoboken and Montclair that are currently exempt from Mount Laurel quotas because “they are facing a shortage of affordable housing.”

Fulop also has called for affordable housing protections to remain in place forever. Currently, they expire in 30 years.

The case for copying California

Zoe Baldwin, a vice president at the Regional Plan Association, said there are a number of ideas being tried in California and other places that New Jersey should adopt, including greater use of ADUs and converting such “stranded assets” as vacant malls, office buildings and other commercial sites that already have paved surfaces and roadways into housing.

“It seems that so many people are concerned that there is some invisible force trying to turn a sleepy hamlet into Hoboken, and that is so hyperbolic,” she said.

The Fair Share Housing Center, which has been driving the enforcement of the state’s Mount Laurel doctrine in most of the state for decades, supports pending legislation that would provide two years for developers to propose housing plans for vacant or mostly empty commercial property, provided at least 20% of the units are deed-restricted affordable. That bill has yet to get a hearing.

The organization also would support the adoption by New Jersey of a law similar to California’s YIGBY (Yes in God’s Backyard), which allows religious organizations and other nonprofits to build affordable housing on their properties regardless of local zoning.

Baldwin said the Regional Plan Association is part of a broad coalition also supporting a bill (S-2347), which would require municipalities to adopt a model ordinance and permit the construction of accessory dwelling units on single-family lots, provided the proposed ADU conforms to regulations.

She called it “astounding” that there is resistance to this type of “gentle density.”

“Community character is often a dog whistle, meaning that people don’t want people of different races or economic income levels in their communities,” Baldwin added. “That’s where we need to have more tools like the ability to convert stranded assets, to have people create accessory dwelling units, because these types of projects don’t change the community character.”

Testing ‘accessory dwelling units’

The state is embarking on an ADU pilot project this year. The state budget signed by Gov. Phil Murphy includes $10 million to be distributed through a competitive grant program that the Community Affairs department is still developing, according to a spokesperson.

Initial reports were that 10 municipalities would share the money and provide up to $100,000 in forgivable loans, financing and technical assistance apiece to homeowners to build or redevelop ADUs for low-income residents on their property.

Baldwin also said a state housing plan “would make a ton of sense” as a way of setting goals and priorities for housing. It could help prevent things like the “glut” of age-restricted housing that occurred during the 1990s and early 2000s. Many officials continue to try to fulfill their municipality’s affordable obligations using senior housing because it does not impact local schools, but Baldwin said not everyone wants to live in 55-and-over complexes.

“We absolutely need to be more honest with ourselves about our ability to meet the actual needs of our population, and quite frankly, our businesses,” she said. “We need to make intentional decisions to meet stated collective goals and have more open conversations about how and where we should grow.”

Reviewing rental laws

Berger of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey and others said it is important for the state to also look at rental laws. Among the ideas proposed by the network are statewide rent controls, which Berger acknowledged could be difficult to get through the Legislature. Also proposed is a surcharge on corporate landlords and other large for-profit property owners who impose high rent increases, with the proceeds paying for rental assistance and eviction prevention efforts.

“They [landlords] are making money hand over fist, they are creating this rent crisis purely because they can,” Berger said. “Maybe there’s a way for us to rein in some of the corporate greed that is driving our housing crisis.”

The network also supports increasing the eviction filing fee, currently $50, as a disincentive for starting eviction proceedings and as a way to expand revenue for eviction diversion and housing counseling programs.

Rental protections are a concern to many. To help prevent wrongful rent increases, especially in places with a rent stabilization law, Beverly Brown Ruggia, a financial justice organizer with New Jersey Citizen Action, said tenants need better information about their rights.

“There really needs to be a lot of public education and outreach,” she said, adding that she and neighbors informally canvassed about 120 units in Jersey City and no one knew what their rights were. “We need to reinvigorate public awareness and public activism to really make a difference.”

Alex Staropoli of Fair Share Housing Center said the state should follow the lead of places like Massachusetts and New York City and adopt a universal housing application that people could use to apply for multiple types of public housing in multiple locations. Legislation was introduced in previous years to create such an application in the state, but it has yet to pass.

“This would go a long way to connecting people to housing,” she said.

Excessive fees

Several advocates said the state and federal governments need to take greater steps to regulate tenant screening and upfront costs. Currently, any time a person applies for an apartment, they must pay a fee for a credit check, even if they recently applied for other apartments. Landlords can also require large upfront payments, which many people are unable to cover.

Ruggia said she has heard of instances where a person was required to pay as much as $9,000 upfront — first and last month’s rent plus a separate security deposit and finder’s fee — for one apartment.

“How many people can afford to do that?” Ruggia asked. “The costs of just finding a rental, the junk fees for applications, the screening process is, I would say, unfair and abusive.”

Yet the biggest obstacle to building more affordable homes is a lack of funding. Developers subsidize construction in mixed developments, but these usually contain a far larger number of market-rate units and few that low- and moderate-income households can afford — typically a 4-1 ratio.

Time for more federal help?

Nonprofit builders by their very nature need subsidies to construct fully affordable developments. These typically come from the state and local housing trust funds, which benefit from realty transfer fees, but some of that money is being diverted by the state to cover other housing security and stability programs, Berger said.

“To preserve the intended use of the (Affordable Housing) Trust Fund and ensure that construction and rehabilitation resources remain available to fill the need for more affordable homes to be built, we must grow” the trust fund, she said.

Ruggia said the Murphy administration needs to follow through and finally create a public bank that could “step in and make sure that the gaps in affordable housing financing are filled.”

‘With the right zoning and the right financing and subsidies, we could solve this problem in a very short period of time, but we need the political will to do that.’

Staci Berger, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey

Ultimately, though, advocates said the federal government has abdicated its responsibility for housing and needs to step up and provide more money to solve what is a national affordability crisis. Former President Ronald Reagan drastically cut public housing funds during the 1980s and the Faircloth Amendment made it illegal for the federal government to create additional public housing units, capping the number at 1999 levels.

Some groups call for an increase in the number of housing vouchers to low-income families and the amount of money available through federal low-income housing tax credits, which have helped build both affordable and market-rate units in more than 1,500 developments in New Jersey, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“We might need more subsidies, we might need more incentives,” Berger said. “Or maybe we need to think about revisiting the federal ban on creating and investing in housing for people.

“We saw the biggest investment and creation of housing in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s when the federal government was involved in it and maybe there’s ways to do that” without the kinds of concentrated high-rise development that proved unsuccessful.

Baldwin, of the Regional Plan Association, said there “is a growing appetite in the Legislature” for measures to tackle the affordable housing problem.

“A lot of it gets advanced. Not a lot of it has passed yet. But I always joke that policy work is a long game,” she said.

Berger said a combination of funding and good policies can work, but they are not always easy to get.

“With the right zoning and the right financing and subsidies, we could solve this problem in a very short period of time,” she said. “But we need the political will to do that.”

Cover photo: Half Moon Village 3 affordable senior housing in San Francisco, built since California stepped up efforts to increase affordable housing. (Mid Pen Housing Courtesy Bruce Damonte, as provided by the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California)

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About this project

The Change Project is a part of the Chasing the Dream multiplatform public media initiative from The WNET Group. We are reporting on challenges facing New Jersey in a variety of areas involving social justice and equity, as well as showcasing promising remedies. Our reporting focuses on inequality in many aspects of life, from birth through school to finding an affordable place to live. We are also focusing on what has worked elsewhere to make life better for people, and what lessons we can learn for the future. 

Major funding for The Change Project and Chasing the Dream is provided by The JPB Foundation

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