The Housing Bill is on the Governor’s Desk - Already Low Municipal Obligations Reduced Again
Posted by Kevin Walsh on January 11th 2011
Early yesterday evening, the Assembly took the final action necessary to put S1/A3447 on the Governor’s desk for his signature. The legislation has improved substantially since June 2010, but still reduces the number of homes required in New Jersey by over 50 percent.
Under the S1/A3447, municipalities are actually required to provide opportunities for housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income families instead of just those with moderate incomes. Municipalities can no longer meet all of their obligations by providing expensive housing for households earning up to 150% of median income. Developers will actually be required to provide housing that is affordable rather than simply paying a small fee to avoid making a development inclusionary. In those ways, and many others, S1/A3447 is much better legislation than what was originally proposed as the replacement to the Council on Affordable Housing.
The legislation reflects significant input from FSHC and many of our allies, including housing, planning, and civil rights organizations, a broad range of faith communities, special needs and supportive housing providers, and over 100 other groups that opposed the original S-1. With the help of many of you, we shaped the debate through preparing analyses, sharing information with the media, and helping mobilize our grassroots allies. We persuaded the Assembly to reject the Senate’s demand that its bad legislation pass by June 30, 2010. Our work led the Assembly to pass legislation that at least acknowledges the relevance of the Mount Laurel doctrine. We consider the progress an important accomplishment for housing advocates in New Jersey.
Unfortunately, as with the legislation that passed the Assembly late in 2010, the version that is now on the Governor’s desk falls far short of providing the amount of housing needed to comply with the Mount Laurel doctrine. As a result of amendments made yesterday, which include mobiles homes without deed restrictions in the definition of “qualified unit” and reduce obligations in shore towns, we project that the S1/A3447 will require about 48,000 units of affordable housing to be provided over the next ten years - or an over 50 percent reduction from COAH’s Third Round numbers and a 13 percent reduction from the version that passed the Assembly just a month ago (you can see our complete town-by-town analysis here). Unlike COAH’s cumulative system, that figure is not in addition to units that have been zoned for but unbuilt. A municipality that has zoned for inclusionary housing in the 1990s can use that site to reduce its obligation going forward.
Yesterday’s legislative votes now puts the issue front and center with Governor Christie. While he considers whether to sign S1/A3447, he also faces a court deadline of March 8, 2010 for COAH to adopt revised Third Round regulations. In a court filing we received today, in response to our motion for a special master, COAH has advised the Appellate Division that it will need more than the five months to adopt the required regulations in the event it does not receive a stay from the Supreme Court. If the Governor does not sign this bill, and COAH continues to delay, we are optimistic that the judiciary will keep its promise that, while it does not build houses, it does enforce the constitution.
