JACKSON — Days after the Jackson Township Council committed the final $1.3 million in its affordable housing trust fund to meet a state-mandated deadline, municipal officials received a letter from the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) requesting that they verify their spending plan or risk being forced to send $1.8 million to Trenton.
In the letter dated July 24, COAH said its records indicated that $1.8 million was still in Jackson’s affordable housing trust fund by the July 17 deadline when such funds had to be committed to affordable housing initiatives.
According to John Maczuga of T&M Associates, who is Jackson’s affordable housing planner, the funds to which COAH maintains it is entitled to have already been accounted for and committed to a number of affordable housing projects throughout Jackson.
“As required by the statute, we have committed or spent those (trust fund) moneys so there is no money at risk,” Maczuga told the Tri-Town News. “That money (referenced in COAH’s letter) is presumably the at-risk money they would be interested in seizing if we had not committed it.”
Municipalities’ affordable housing trust funds have accumulated over several decades as developers built projects in communities
(generally not affordable housing projects) and paid a fee per unit built into the trust fund, with the understanding that the town would eventually use that money to get affordable housing built or to rehabilitate substandard housing within its borders.
Municipalities were at risk of having the money in their trust fund taken by the state under guidelines set forth in a state law that was enacted in 2008.
The law gave municipalities four years to commit the trust fund money to affordable housing projects or forfeit it to the state. Gov. Chris Christie indicated the money to be taken from the municipal trust funds would go into the state budget for housing needs.
Under objection from the Fair Share Housing Center, which advocates for affordable housing, a court recently ruled that the state could not seize the funds without extending certain due process rights to the municipalities.
In recent weeks, the council took action to commit its affordable housing funds to several projects and Maczuga maintains that action will keep Jackson from having to give up any money to the state.
Jackson was not the only municipality to receive the COAH letter, said Maczuga, who also works with other towns and deals with their COAH obligations.
According to Maczuga, COAH does not have much jurisdiction over Jackson’s affordable housing efforts.
“We are a court town (affordable housing issues under the jurisdiction of the court), meaning that the only control or regulatory obligation we have with COAH is with the money in the trust account,” Maczuga said.
“I am not sure what basis COAH would have for denying our spending plan. Effectively, the only reason behind this is their ability to seize these funds,” he said.
In response to the letter, Jackson and other municipalities will have to update their trust fund monitoring to reflect recently approved spending plans, as well as provide COAH with a certified bank statement for July 2012 to reflect those changes.
“It seems like they are throwing every roadblock they can to, in effect, prevent municipalities from complying with this deadline,” Maczuga said. “They seem pretty unresponsive to a lot of the inquiries (from municipalities) and I think in large part, they are overwhelmed with the workload.”
Despite the letter from the state, Maczuga said he believes Jackson is in the clear with its COAH spending plans.
“In the case of Jackson,” he said, “we are in good shape.”