More Affordable Housing Policy

Since becoming a founding member of the New Jersey Regional Coalition (NJRC) in 2003, PlanSmart NJ has helped shape the policy issues that focus the Coalition’s community organizing. One of the Coalition’s central issues has been to abolish New Jersey’s practice of allowing wealthy towns to pay poorer towns to accept up to half of its obligation to provide affordable housing. The practice is called Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs). The faithbased, union, and community-based organizations that make up the Coalition, found RCAs contributed to the concentration of poverty and segregation and was an abhorrent practice that must be abolished. One year ago, no one believed that it could be done. PlanSmart NJ was brought in as an expert witness during the hearings on A-500. We were asked to explain how affordable housing in the suburbs was consistent with Smart Growth and did not constitute sprawl. Our full testimony is on our website.

On July 17, however, because of the tenacious leadership of Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts with the grassroots support of the New Jersey Regional Coalition, Governor Corzine signed A-500 into law. The event was witnessed by 500 people at the historic setting of the Ethel Lawrence Homes in Mt. Laurel, named for the woman who sought the option to obtain affordable housing after her home was demolished to make way for more upscale housing. The lawsuit she brought resulted in the historic 1975 Mt. Laurel lawsuit.

Following the enactment of A-500, PlanSmart NJ has re-invigorated its efforts to transform all of New Jersey’s housing policies, which have failed for decades to produce the housing the Garden State needs. In January 2007, the lawsuit that we filed as a member of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment succeeded in overturning the Third Round Rules of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). COAH released new rules in June of this year that continue their misguided “growth share” approach. The new rules continue to foster litigation and delays, and misdirect municipalities away from their power to plan and zone for affordable housing. Although a new lawsuit may be required, we are currently supporting the new Housing Commission, created by A-500 to produce a comprehensive housing plan for the state. We are also promoting a change in the relationship between COAH, the Department of Environmental Protection and the State Planning Commission to integrate policy for optimal results. And we are promoting a regional tax-base sharing system to ensure housing is planned regionally and contributes to center-based, transit-oriented development.