The New Jersey Affordable Housing Program’s initial housing numbers for the fourth ten-year round were released by the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA) on October 18. The updated numbers will take effect on July 1, 2025, as required by the Fair Housing Act.
The DCA calculated the number of affordable housing units that West Windsor needs to build in the fourth round to be 661 units. The DCA also calculated West Windsor’s present need to be 61 units.
The purpose of the Fair Housing Act as explained by Fair Share Housing Center in a press release on March 18, 2024, is “to set a course for future enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine, the state’s constitutional requirement for every town to provide its fair share of affordable housing.”
Jag Davies, a spokesperson for the Fair Share Housing Center says, “The Mt. Laurel doctrine is really special. It’s the envy of housing advocates in states across the country. It declared exclusionary zoning unconstitutional and that each municipality has an obligation to allow for its fair share of affordable housing.”
NJ’s Affordable Housing program was created by the Fair Housing Act which was signed into law on July 2, 1985. It was most recently amended by the NJ Legislature and signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy on March 20, 2024.
The third round of the program was run by the NJ Judiciary because the State agency that was formed to administer the program, the Council of Affordable Housing (COAH) was declared inoperative by the NJ Supreme Court in 2015.
Mr. Davies says, “Essentially what [the new law] tried to do is make it much easier for towns to develop housing. It provides more clarity on what a town has to do to get across the finish line to meet their affordable housing obligations. It provides a lot more transparency around the process and reduces the amount of bureaucracy involved.”
Dan Weiss, a West Windsor Council member says the change in the amended law means if there is a dispute between a developer and a municipality it doesn’t happen in the courts.
Weiss says, “That is the real main difference between this and what has preceded in the previous round. In the previous round, this was all court driven at the Superior Court level.”
Weiss continues “If there are challenges, the challenges are within the DCA administration view. They are partnering with the Court but it’s not like going to court. It is through the program.”
According to the NJ Government, affordable housing means “a person should pay no more than 30% of their income towards housing.”
In 2024, the upper bound for a low income 2 person family and the upper bound for a moderate income family is $52,002 and $83,234 respectively in Mercer County’s region (Region 4) according to data prepared by the Affordable Housing Professionals of New Jersey.
Mr. Weiss says affordable housing is for people like “teachers, EMTs, police officers, and business owners.” He continues, “I think there is a lot of prejudice regarding how we look at these environments”
The fourth round is set to begin on July 1, 2025, and will last until June 30, 2035. During that time, each town that has an affordable housing obligation is required to provide the number of affordable housing units that they have agreed to build. The units can be built by for-profit developers or not-for-profit organizations in locations identified in each town’s plan.
The program gives credits to incentivize developers to build certain types of housing. For example for seniors or for special needs citizens. This means that the actual number of units built will be most likely less than the amount calculated by the DCA.
A rough outline of the steps in the process as described in the Fair Housing Act is as follows:
The now completed first step for the fourth round is for the DCA to give their calculations to municipalities by October 20, 2024.
The next step for the fourth round numbers as defined in the law is for the municipalities to adopt a binding resolution of the number of units the town will build by January 31, 2025. For this step, the municipalities can either use the DCA provided number or their own number calculated using the same formula used by the DCA.
Interested parties, like developers, have until February 28, 2025 to challenge the number and provide their own calculation of what the municipality should have to build.
The DCA will give their decision on any challenges by March 31, 2025.
Municipalities then have until June 30 to adopt their housing element and fair share plan (HEFSP). A housing element is the actual lot where housing will be built.
Interested parties have until August 31, 2025 to challenge the HESFP. The municipality and party challenging the HEFSP have until December 31, 2025 to work with a mediator to resolve the challenge.
The final step due by March 15, 2026 is that all zoning ordinances and resolutions required to implement the plan must be adopted.
For information on this topic:
Fair Housing Act law – (S-50/A-4)
This article was produced as part of MCCC’s Community Reporting “J Lab” certificate program made possible by grant funding from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and The New School: Journalism + Design. For more information about the J Lab contact Program Director Prof. Holly Johnson at johnsonh@mccc.edu.
