Dozens of NJ Towns Lower Affordable Requirements

Many New Jersey municipalities are pushing back on their affordable housing targets. Dozens have been successful.

At least 60 municipalities negotiated compromises with the Fair Share Housing Center to reduce affordable housing targets, Gothamist reported. That represents about a third of the towns that requested lowered allotments. The Fair Share Housing Center contested 67 municipalities that petitioned to reduce their targets.

“This process has worked far better than I would’ve even anticipated,” Fair Share Housing Center executive director Adam Gordon told the publication.

The decreased targets have appeared in court dockets for 15 municipalities so far. Those towns combined to lower their targets by more than 1,400 units, though none of the individual towns received as drastic a reduction as each wanted. Roxbury saw the biggest drop of the 15, a target drop from 989 units to 499 units; it requested an obligation of 358 units.

Towns are negotiating targets laid out for 2025 to 2035 with the nonprofit. A panel of retired judges is overseeing the negotiations, which began in earnest in October after the Department of Community Affairs released its requirements for every state municipality.

Litigation is on the table for towns that don’t agree to their numbers or find a settlement with the nonprofit.

In February, the New Jersey Builders Association filed a lawsuit against every town attempting to reduce the number of affordable homes they need to build. Those municipalities are looking to reduce the number of affordable housing units they need to build by a combined 14,000 units, according to the complaint.

New Jersey officials are seeking to add 85,000 affordable housing units to the state over the next decade; municipalities are tasked with adding an average of 150 units, though the exact number differs across towns.

Municipalities need to deliver their affordable housing plans by the end of June.

— Holden Walter-Warner