Regional Contribution Agreements — the method that allows wealthier towns like Monroe and Cranbury to pay urban centers to take on the suburban communities’ state-mandated housing obligations — could become an endangered species.
Gov. Jon Corzine told the Anti-Poverty Network that he wants to build 10,000 new affordable housing units and that he wants to place limits on the so-called RCAs.
in addition to creating new units, Corzine said the location of them is just as important. He said that the state must promote affordable housing in areas close to viable jobs. He also endorsed limits on Regional Contribution Agreements, which allow towns to opt out of their affordable housing commitments by paying other communities to take them.
George Hawkins, executive director of New Jersey Future, a group that champions a coordinated approach to development, endorsed Corzine’s remarks, stressing that affordable housing is “very significant” for the state’s economy and for residents.
“If you don’t have any jobs near where the poor folks are, how are they going to stop being poor,” Hawkins said.
The Record offers this take, with which I wholehearatedly agree:
But it’s particularly gratifying that the governor raised the possibility of requiring more communities in the state to provide their fair share of moderately priced housing.
The New Jersey Supreme Court’s landmark Mount Laurel decisions 30 years ago aimed for all communities to provide some share of low- and moderately priced housing. But wealthier towns have taken advantage of a provision that lets them pay other communities to take on their share of affordable housing.
The communities most eager to receive money to build new housing are the poorer cities. That’s why New Jersey still has the problem of having its low-income population concentrated in urban areas, often far from their jobs.
Corzine told an anti-poverty conference he would consider setting limits on towns buying their way out of their housing obligations. He should pursue this. Increasingly, company headquarters and large retail stores are locating outside of urban areas: Jobs are moving away from affordable housing.
Cranbury is a prime example, building — or preparing to build — 18 million square feet of warehouse space, which creates lower-income jobs, but the small town has been sending its housing obligation north — to Carteret and Perth Amboy. Nothing wrong with that, technically — the rules are the rules — but it does seem to violate the spirit of the original Mount Laurel decision, which was to ensure that there was a place in every community for every income level.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 