By David Kilby, Special Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Even though the Council on Affordable Housing no longer exists, the township still is in a tight spot when it comes to meeting its state-imposed affordable housing requirements despite having plenty of low-income units on its drawing board.
The current policy in the state is that every municipality has to allow for if not provide affordable housing, but the specifics of that overarching policy is a moving target as litigation constantly is changing, said members of the Springfield Council.
”We have two really good projects that will be really beneficial to the community that’ll be good to fulfill our court-imposed obligation,” Councilman David Frank said at the Springfield Council meeting Dec. 6.
The township has a group home that’s being contemplated that would be a fully supervised home for adults with special needs and would meet affordable housing requirements.
And Springfield has another arrangement for another group home as well as sic family housing units, Mayor Denis McDaniel said in a phone interview Dec. 7.
He said the council wants to proceed with these plans because it’ll help the township meet its obligations. But the state’s plans for the township, which Mayor McDaniel said were too complicated to explain, does not allow for the creation of these units.
”Our application to the state is to modify our plan to allow for the creation of these units,” Mayor McDaniel said.
But this request by Springfield for the state to modify its plans for affordable housing has been pending for months now, he added.
”They’ve approved no plans, and they’ve denied no plans,” Mayor McDaniel said. “They’re just sitting on their thumbs.”
Since COAH was dissolved, the Department of Community Affairs has been the governing agency managing affordable housing regulations.
Mayor McDaniel said COAH “used to be in but not of the DCA. In the absence of COAH, the DCA does or doesn’t take action, and, in most cases, it does not.”
Penalties and requirements constantly are changing as well and are too hard to keep track of, he said.
Earlier this year, the state threatened to “steal” affordable housing funds municipalities had raised themselves if a municipality didn’t spend it on affordable housing the way the DCA required them to do so, the mayor said.
”The state is not clear as to how to spend the money,” he added. “If you spend the money for its intended purpose, and they decide after the fact that it doesn’t meet their demands, you then spent the money pointlessly.”
In the past, the state has required one unit for every four, eight or 10 thousand residents, but the ratio always is changing. The different types of affordable housing also vary and are trending upward as the newest type of moderate income housing required by the state actually costs more than the average household income, the mayor said.
Springfield has not been provided any funding for affordable housing from the state, but it has raised about $400,000 locally through developers’ fees, Mayor McDaniel said.
”It’s clearly socialized housing at its worst,” Mayor McDaniel said. “There couldn’t be a more ridiculous way to go about achieving the goal. There’s no dispute that (affordable housing) is needed. All of the disputes revolve around the implementation of the goal. We have the state requiring local communities to pay lots of money in areas where everyone agrees property taxes are too high.
”It’s a big mess, and no one knows how to deal with it. The township has created in the range of 50 units off and on over the last 10 years. Mt. Laurel decisions began 40 years ago, and it’s been a big statewide fight since.”
He said the state is impeding upon the creation of affordable housing in Springfield as well as in other municipalities, and this is an ongoing problem he doesn’t see being resolved any time soon.
”It’s the hand of big government pressing down on local folks,” he added.
Councilman Frank said he would like to see the state support “more projects and less litigation.”
”We’re ready and open to building affordable housing,” Councilman Frank said at the meeting Dec. 6. “The bureaucracy is an impediment. We have real people with real money with real projects, not the make-believe of the state.”

