To build a state that can sustain itself and thrive, New Jersey needs to produce, preserve or rehabilitate 100,000 homes that low-, moderateand middle-income people can afford. Realizing this goal will require the governor to develop a common vision for his administration and an interdepartmental plan that reconciles environmental, economic and humanitarian interests behind achieving his campaign pledge of 100,000 affordable homes.
New Jersey’s lower-income people have been struggling for decades to find housing they can afford. Today, middleincome residents also are being priced out of the housing market. Currently, half of all jobs in New Jersey pay under $33,000 a year. Using the standard recommendation of one-third of a person’s salary, those workers could afford a home that sold for around $100,000.
But a third of New Jersey homes now cost more than $500,000. Figures recently released by the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey show that the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in this state requires a $46,000 annual salary.
Factoring in the state’s property taxes, New Jersey’s median monthly housing costs are 52 percent higher than the rest of the nation. In the next decade, according to the State Department of Labor, three-quarters of new salaries will fall below what is needed to secure decent housing. The Brookings Institution identified the lack of workforce housing as a pre-eminent threat to New Jersey’s future.
Housing that is affordable to our workforce is critical to the state’s economic sustainability. A 2007 Rutgers University survey of New Jersey’s business community found “cost of housing” the greatest disadvantage of doing business here. Insufficient affordable housing is now as much an economic crisis for New Jersey as it is a humanitarian one.
Supporting economic vitality with housing affordable to a diversified workforce cannot, and need not, be done at the expense of New Jersey’s environmental health. The goal of 100,000 affordable homes will not be reached by continuing New Jersey’s historical patterns of sprawl development.
The state must adopt a comprehensive, interdepartmental plan that identifies how to preserve our existing affordable housing, rehabilitate and redevelop our cities, and create new housing in mixed-use, moderate-density development near transportation and employment. All of this can be done without stressing communities or the environment if New Jersey encourages and facilitates growth and redevelopment where it should occur, as strongly as it discourages growth where it should not.
Recently, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) – the agency charged with providing affordable housing – assembled a housing task force to undertake a comprehensive examination of issues that make it difficult to provide affordable housing in New Jersey. Some public leaders have incorrectly implied that draft recommendations by a task force subcommittee are actually the final report. They are not.
In fact, there are six subcommittees, each of which produced preliminary recommendations for consideration by the task force. For example, they call for extending affordability controls, conveying underutilized state property for redevelopment at below-market prices, increasing accessibility of foreclosure prevention counseling and streamlining services for the homeless. It is important to note that none of the subcommittee recommendations have been officially adopted yet.
Public comments by Corzine administration officials have suggested that the housing task force report would lead to reversing New Jersey’s best environmental protection statutes and place affordable housing in dangerous or undesirable locations. In reality, DCA recommendations are only the first step in developing a plan for 100,000 affordable homes. The governor’s goal is so ambitious that it will require an interdepartmental implementation plan.
Recent public clashes on this issue indicate how urgent it is for the governor to establish a common vision for his administration. The governor’s goal of 100,000 affordable homes is so crucial to New Jersey’s future that it should be driving the policy decisions of his administration. This is not to say the priorities of one state agency should override another. As state Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson recently said, “It is a false choice to say we must pick the environment or affordable housing. It’s a false choice that never has to be made.” Indeed, it is possible and essential to reconcile environmental, humanitarian and economic interests behind a unified vision for 100,000 affordable homes.
All who are concerned about New Jersey’s future and solving our housing crisis must focus on developing shared goals and integrated strategies. This will require everyone placing some of their personal interests or biases aside for the greater good that reconciliation can create. It is time for the governor to focus his cabinet and officials on forging a common plan for building a sustainable New Jersey, with adequate affordable housing for a diversified workforce, preserved open space, clean air and water, and a positive quality of life for everyone.
Alison Badgett is the executive director, and Bruce Davidson the chairman of the Trenton-based Homes for New Jersey