Column: Affordable Housing in Limbo

The New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing held its first meeting in three months on March 22. It didn’t do much. Realistically, there’s not much it can do.

Affordable housing construction in New Jersey is at a virtual standstill due to legal challenges to COAH’s process of setting third-round housing obligations—its most recent requirements for the numbers of units municipalities must provide for low- and middle-income families.

Few municipal officials are complaining. COAH is one of the most hated state agencies. Towns do not like being told they have to provide for any affordable housing units within their borders. Most residents would rather their towns build nothing, or higher-end housing.

Controversy has surrounded COAH since its creation in 1985 in response to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel rulings. In those decisions, the court stated that towns have a constitutional obligation to provide their “fair share” of affordable housing.

But COAH’s third-round numbers, released back in October 2008, brought additional problems because the council changed the way it calculated obligations from a formulaic system to one based on a municipality’s future growth.

The result was a mixed bag. Towns’ growth share obligations ranged from 36 for Chatham to 306 for Madison to 1,744 for Parsippany.

The New Jersey Highlands Council got involved and cut a deal that allows municipalities that conform to the Highlands regional master plan to meet different—typically lower—affordable housing obligations that reflect the Highlands’ goal to preserve sensitive land in the region. In Parsippany’s case, the obligation dropped to just 274 units. Washington Township’s fell to 92, from 201. Montville’s dropped from 316 to 64.

Overall the municipal lobbying representative, the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, supported growth share as fairer. Of course, housing advocates hated it, and took it to court.

And won.

So far.

The New Jersey Appellate Court has issued a number of rulings in which it tossed out the growth share numbers. Last fall, it ordered COAH to go back to the old way of setting housing quotas.

But numerous groups have appealed that to the state Supreme Court, which has been mum so far, although housing advocates keep expecting a ruling any day now.

It’s important for the court to have its say, and quickly, to restart the process of building housing for those who need it most, particularly during a still-tough economy.

COAH, which defends the growth share rules as proper, particularly given the relative dearth of land for new housing in most communities, sees no reason to rewrite its rules when the Supreme Court could turn around and negate the lower court’s decision.

There’s also the question of how—or, maybe if—the Legislature may change the process.

A COAH reform bill had made it to the desk of Gov. Chris Christie, who conditionally vetoed it last January. Believing lawmakers would not agree to Christie’s terms, Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, withdrew his bill and vowed last month to introduce a new effort that he hopes will satisfy competing goals in Trenton.

That’s going to be very hard to do, since Assembly Democrats had a very different view of how to fix the state’s affordable housing system than did the governor and Lesniak, and so far no one seems willing to compromise.

So, Lesniak is still working on a new bill.

COAH’s meetings will continue to involve little more than minor issues and votes to delay approving municipal affordable housing plans pending a final court decision.

Municipalities will do as little building as possible.

Meanwhile, the number of people in need continues to grow: New Jersey Legal Services reported on the same day that COAH met that in 2009, nearly 10 percent of the state’s population was living in poverty—defined as $21,000 for a family of four—and almost 2 million were living at 200 percent of the poverty limit, an income at which it would still be tough to make ends meet in high-cost New Jersey.

While COAH flounders, all those in need will have to keep waiting for a decent place to live.

Colleen O'Dea is a writer, editor, researcher, data analyst, Web page designer and mapper with almost three decades in the news business.

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