Landmark Affordable Housing Law Is Good News, West Orange Pastor Says

WEST ORANGE, NJ — A landmark change to affordable housing regulations in New Jersey is on the horizon, and it’s good news for people struggling with the high price of living – including those in West Orange, advocates say.

Pastor Alphonsus Platt of Nia Fellowship Church in West Orange is among the advocates cheering for a new state law that will revamp the way affordable housing quotas are calculated in towns and cities across New Jersey.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law Wednesday. See Related: NJ Affordable Housing Rule Changes Pass, Head To Murphy For Signature

Murphy gave some background about the situation at a news conference to mark the law’s signing. The governor wrote:

“Affordable housing has been a central public policy challenge in New Jersey for nearly half a century. Forty-nine years ago this week, in a case brought by two local branches of the NAACP, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in a landmark ruling that every municipality must ‘make realistically possible an appropriate variety and choice of housing.’ The court went on to say that towns cannot stand in the way of opportunities for low- and moderate-income housing. This principle became known as the Mount Laurel doctrine. To this day, it is studied by law students and lawyers all across the nation.”

Murphy continued:

“For decades, all three branches of government have wrestled with how to apply the principles of Mount Laurel in practice. At times, our state Legislature has tried to address this issue. At other times, the process for determining affordable housing obligations was left to an executive branch agency. But more recently, over the last 10 years, this process has mainly played out in the courts, through litigation.”

The time for that is over, Murphy said.

With the signing of Wednesday’s bill, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs will now be running the numbers. Towns will then have the freedom to come up with plans to meet those quotas. Municipalities can earn bonus credits for constructing affordable housing where it is needed most, such as transit hubs, or for providing housing for vulnerable populations like senior citizens.

And if there is a dispute, it will be handled through a mediation program run by the courts, the governor said.

“In short, this legislation will enable us to build new affordable housing where it is needed, with far fewer hurdles,” Murphy said.

The new process will replace the role previously played by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which has been “defunct” for over a decade and is formally abolished under the bill, the governor’s office said.

The news got a big cheer from Platt and other clergy affiliated with advocacy group Faith in New Jersey, who issued a joint statement after the bill’s signing.

“This bill will streamline the affordable housing process and ensure that every municipality provides its fair share of affordable housing to its residents,” the clergy members wrote. “With the exorbitant cost of groceries, rising costs of housing and most everything else, New Jerseyans are stretched to the limit.”

Faith in New Jersey members praised Murphy for putting pen to paper and signing the new housing law:

“We know that when New Jersey families have access to affordable housing it leads to them seeing more employment opportunities, increased wages, and better physical and mental health outcomes. As part of our Live Free New Jersey movement, passing this bill will have a positive impact on New Jersey’s Black and Brown residents, because it helps alleviate the generational damage done by housing segregation as well as the more recent gentrification that’s been pricing these families out of their longtime communities. Signing this bill is a great step toward making an equitable New Jersey where all families are afforded the opportunity to thrive.”

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