Monarch Housing’s Blog!

Take Action!

Ask Governor Corzine to lift the hiring freeze for the Senior Deputy Commissioner for Housing!

This action alert is from our friends at Homes For New Jersey. We strongly encourage our readers to take action.

Dear Homes for New Jersey Partners,

Passage of the historic housing reform bill A500/S1783 brings with it the promise of real progress towards our 100,000 home goal. But we need your help to ensure the effective implementation of one of its most important components-hiring the most qualified professional possible for the new position of DCA Senior Deputy Commissioner for Housing.

The Senior Deputy Commissioner for Housing will help lead the new State Housing Commission, also created by A500, and the development of New Jersey’s much needed housing plan. The potential is tremendous; with the right expertise, the Senior Deputy Commissioner for Housing could play a key leadership role in ensuring every New Jersey resident has a safe, decent affordable home. The current hiring freeze will limit the pool of candidates from which DCA Commissioner Doria can choose to fill the position.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday, June 23, the full New Jersey Senate will take up S1783, its version of the comprehensive housing reform bill, identical to A500 which passed the Assembly on June 16. Please contact your state senator by phone or fax or e-mail and urge him or her to support this important measure. Passage by the Senate means the bill will go next to the Governor, who is expected to sign it into law. Go here to find contact information for your senator. Let your voice be heard at this crucial juncture for more affordable housing and a better way to deliver it.

This legislation includes a number of policy priorities the Housing and Community Development Network, Homes for New Jersey and Monarch Housing have championed for many years.

The core elements of S1783 represent significant opportunities for New Jersey to provide safe, quality and affordable housing to residents of our State, including:

Creating a State Housing Plan and Commission: This Commission will provide strategic direction in establishing housing goals, strategies and resource priorities for the state. Comprised of public, private and government representatives, it will gather and disseminate information on housing needs, and prepare and adopt an annual Strategic Housing Plan with public input. New Jersey needs a regularly updated housing plan to establish priorities, identify needed reforms and ensure the most effective and targeted use of limited state resources. DCA and HMFA must submit an annual report detailing its housing activity.

Establishing a Statewide Developer Fee: This assessment will help increase critically needed resources for affordable housing development. It will also help create a predictable playing field for commercial and non-residential developers, by applying a statewide 2.5% fee on these projects, rather than a fee, that under COAH regulations, could be as high as 9% on these projects.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Advocacy, affordable-housing, Homes-for-New-Jersey, Housing-and-Community-Development-Network, Joe-Roberts, Supportive Housing

We were pleased to read an Op-ed in the Star-Ledger on Sunday May 18, 2008, by our friends Alison Badgett, the executive director of Homes for New Jersey, and Bruce Davidson the chairman of Homes for New Jersey. The article entitled “A common vision on affordable homes,” makes the case that “to build a state that can sustain itself and thrive, New Jersey needs to produce, preserve or rehabilitate 100,000 homes that low, moderate and middle-income people can afford.” The need is clear and is well articulated in the article. The challenge is that the common vision is missing.

To read the full op-ed click here.

Their closing paragraph provides not only a summary but a call to a common vision. We endorse that call and join with them to work to make New Jersey an affordable community for all. The last paragraph follows:

All who are concerned about New Jersey’s future and solving our housing crisis must focus on developing shared goals and integrated strategies. This will require everyone placing some of their personal interests or biases aside for the greater good that reconciliation can create. It is time for the governor to focus his cabinet and officials on forging a common plan for building a sustainable New Jersey, with adequate affordable housing for a diversified workforce, preserved open space, clean air and water, and a positive quality of life for everyone.

New Jersey Assembly members Roberts, Watson Coleman and Green have unveiled a 12 point plan to “will lead to the creation of greater affordable housing opportunities in New Jersey.”

To read the full plan click here.

The 12 proposals are:

* Abolish RCAs: End the reprehensible practice of allowing municipalities to duck their affordable housing responsibilities, but give urban communities new funding so they don’t have to rely on RCAs.

* 20-percent set aside for state projects: Establish a 20-percent affordable housing set aside for all state-assisted development projects — such Smart Growth Areas and Transit villages; state needs to lead by example.

* New Housing Trust Fund: Create a reconstituted state affordable housing umbrella fund with an expanded pool of revenue sources.

* Tax Credits: Make federal Low Income Tax Credits available to private developers; New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, and California already do this.

* Increasing Access: Expand middle-income eligibility for affordable housing units and promote production of housing units for families earning less than 30 percent of the state’s median income.

* Utilizing school funding: Use school funding formula to award towns that provide affordable housing to low- and moderate-income students.

Read the rest of this entry »

The planning process to develop a statewide Housing Plan to guide New Jersey in creating 100,000 new affordable housing units in ten years. This is wonderful news which will hopefully result in the adoption of an effective plan in the next few months.

The following is from the Housing & Community Development Network of NJ.

Newly appointed Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, Joseph V. Doria, met on Monday with housing and community development advocates, and outlined his plan to have the DCA work with them to achieve Governor Corzine’s goal of 100,000 affordable units in 10 years.
 
“I am committed to housing: its production, its preservation and the creation of as many opportunities as possible for New Jersey residents to own and rent safe, decent and affordable housing,” Doria said, in his letter requesting the advocates who had belonged to the Housing Task Force Working Group to reconvene.
 
Read the rest of this entry »

This letter from Alison Badgett the Executive Director of Homes for New Jersey articulates the need for Commissioner Doria to be the leader who can solve New Jersey’s affordability crisis. Please read and share this letter.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Too often in New Jersey, we approach challenging public policy issues by asking, “What change is politically feasible?” when we should be asking, “What change is necessary, and how do we make it politically feasible?” Homes for New Jersey receives with optimism the appointment of Sen. Joseph Doria as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. We believe he may have the political expertise necessary to implement the significant reform necessary to remedy New Jersey’s housing affordability crisis. It will require interdepartmental initiatives, program consolidation, private-public sector coordination and analyzing and untangling overregulation. These changes cannot be done in isolation but must be elements of a comprehensive housing plan.

Read the rest of this entry »