NJ towns must meet affordable housing deadline by end of the month
Credit: Zoshua Colah on Unsplash
Municipalities across New Jersey are approaching a crucial deadline in the state’s efforts to address its affordable housing shortage. Local officials from all 564 municipalities have until January 31 to accept or object to the number of new affordable homes they must develop over the next decade and propose their own target. In October, the state’s Department of Community Affairs released calculations showing a current need for 65,410 low- and moderate-income homes, with an additional 84,698 needed over the next 10 years.
The affordable housing deadlines are set under the Mount Laurel Doctrine, established in 1987, which legally requires all New Jersey towns to provide their “fair share” of affordable housing for their region.
Operating in rounds, the doctrine requires the state to instruct each municipality on the number of affordable homes they must create land for and provide a timeline for development, according to Gothamist.
The housing targets released in October mark the fourth round of the doctrine, which runs from June 2025 through 2035.
Any towns seeking to dispute their state-assigned numbers must file a suit by the end of February 2025. Afterward, NJ and the town must settle their grievances by April 1.
Municipalities have until the end of the month to either adopt DCA’s guidance, or provide their own calculation consistent with state law and until June 30, 2025, to adopt specific plans for how to address the number of affordable homes required.
There are currently 26 municipalities suing to rebut the state law, with three more expected to join, as reported by Gothamist. The towns claim that the law unjustly mandates them to develop more housing without accounting for how many new developments they can realistically support.
On Thursday, NJ Judge Robert Lougy denied the towns’ request to halt the law during the lawsuit. Officials plan to appeal the ruling, but now face the challenge of meeting housing requirements as the litigation progresses.
While the townships involved in the suit plan to continue contesting the requirements, they still intend to meet the law’s deadlines, including this month’s deadline to accept or propose new housing targets.
Warren Township, required to build 262 affordable homes, plans to join the suit. Mayor Lisa Lontai said that local officials are working on a counterproposal to the state’s mandate. Lontai expressed concerns about the process by which towns can dispute their prospective mandates.
Known as “The Program,” this process lets towns negotiate with the state to reduce their affordable housing requirements through a panel of independent judges, avoiding costly litigation. However, towns can still file in court to get their plans approved.
Lontai worries that the panel may face an overwhelming number of disputes, making it unlikely all of them will be resolved by the June 30 deadline.
“Let’s say they get 200 disputes at the end of January. How are they going to effectively deal with all this?” Lontai told Gothamist. “We feel like this was rushed through and not really planned out very well.”
Housing advocates are confident most towns will accept their housing numbers.
“From what I’ve been hearing, there are a lot of towns that think the numbers that came out from [the state] were pretty reasonable. And so they’re just going to move forward,” Adam Gordon, director of Fair Share Housing Center, told Gothamist.
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