Scotch Plains Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Endorses Reform Legislation

The Scotch Plains Affordable Housing Advisory Committee endorsed four state legislative bills intended to reform the affordable housing process at their monthly May meeting.

The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee supports providing affordable housing in New Jersey for low income families, seniors, millennials, veterans, those with special needs as well as other groups. However, the current manner in which affordable housing is determined fails to consider how local communities may be affected by the construction of thousands of new units.

The bills endorsed by the Committee will end the costly, inefficient and inconsistent court mandated process currently being imposed on municipalities by instituting a State legislative committee to evaluate and determine the need for affordable housing at the State and Regional levels and require an analysis of a municipality’s population, infrastructure, school class sizes and school services, before assigning affordable housing numbers.

Below is the full list of bills endorsed by the Committee and links to the bill text:

S-2997/A-4471 – Establishes State Subcommittee on Affordable Housing Needs to make determinations concerning affordable housing needs. The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee also recommends giving nonvoting members the right to vote and give Mayors the opportunity to determine the distribution of affordable housing requirements within their county. https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A4500/4471_I1.PDF

A-1649 – Prohibits affordable housing obligation exemptions for urban aid municipalities.
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A2000/1649_I1.PDF

S-2386/A-1648 – Establishes additional factors (impact on infrastructure, schools, etc.) for municipal adjustment used in calculating fair share affordable housing obligations; provides population-based cap for these obligations.
https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A2000/1648_I1.PDF

S-2572/A-1644 – Allows municipalities to establish up to 50 percent of affordable housing units for their residents. https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/S3000/2572_I1.PDF

“I thank the Committee members for their diligent work, and look forward to bringing our findings to State Legislators,” said Mayor Al Smith, Chairman of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. Deputy Mayor Josh Losardo added “It is plain common sense that there must be consideration of a town’s infrastructure before requiring the construction of thousands of units.”

For more information on the Scotch Plains Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and how to get involved please visit: https://www.scotchplainsnj.gov/departments/affordable-housing/affordable-housing-advisory-committee/

For information on how to contact your state legislators visit this link: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/SelectMun.asp