NEW JERSEY APARTMENT ASSOCIATION URGES POSTING OF S-3691/A-5685 TO END NEW JERSEY’S EVICTION MORATORIUM, PROVIDE HISTORIC TENANT PROTECTIONS AND RENTAL ASSISTANCE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UNDERSCORES THE IMPORTANCE OF POSTING AND PASSING S-3691/A-5685 WITHOUT UNWORKABLE AMENDMENTS 

(MONROE TOWNSHIP, NJ) – In response to a letter by the Housing Community Development network, along with radical advocacy groups such as the North Jersey and Central Jersey Democratic Socialists of America, requesting highly controversial amendments to S-3691/A-5685 (Stack/Timberlake), New Jersey Apartment Association (NJAA) Executive Director David Brogan released the following statement:

“S-3691/A-5685, sponsored by Senator Stack and Assemblywoman Timberlake, as introduced, is a well thought out and pragmatic approach toward addressing a multitude of problems created by New Jersey’s open-ended eviction moratorium. However, the Housing Community Development Network, along with the Democratic Socialists of America, want amendments that would make the bill unworkable.  The New Jersey Apartment Association and its members are urging the legislature to post and pass S-3691/A-5685 as introduced, and we are also asking the governor to sign the bill with no amendments.”

“While small landlords are literally watching their life savings evaporate, the state is failing to fulfill its obligation to get rental assistance to the people who need it. Now, some interest groups want to strip away the rights of small landlords to recover even a fraction of what is owed to them.  They also want to institute statewide rent control, which would reduce property values, reduce capital improvements in apartment buildings, and drive up property taxes for homeowners.”

Brogan went on to say, “I truly hope that the governor and the legislature do the right thing, and that is, end the eviction moratorium now, get the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal rental assistance that is just sitting in state bank accounts to the people who need it, and stop placing the burden of housing hundreds of thousands of people on the backs of private sector landlords who are struggling to survive.”

“If the eviction moratorium continues until the end of the year, Trenton will be responsible for hundreds if not thousands of small landlords going bankrupt, larger landlords will either sell their properties to out of state companies or spend less on maintenance, and for those who own homes in New Jersey, they should prepare for the largest property tax shift onto homeowners in New Jersey’s history.”

The New Jersey Apartment Association (NJAA) is the premier trade association representing all facets of the multifamily housing industry, including market rate and affordable housing owners, managers and developers, as well as suppliers. NJAA’s membership owns and manages over 220,000 apartments, providing quality housing to over one million New Jerseyans. 

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