(Photo by Riley Edwards / Unsplash)
This story was co-reported with The Jersey Bee as part of our joint Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship, examining segregation in Newark and Essex County, New Jersey.
Housing advocates and developers across New Jersey are bracing for big changes next year.
In 2025, New Jersey municipalities will be required to follow new obligations for developing affordable housing following a legal requirement called the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which mandates towns and cities provide their “fair share” of affordable housing.
In March, Governor Murphy signed a bill that amends the state’s fair housing laws to increase affordable housing and strengthen enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine, a constitutional mandate first set by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1975.
“As residents across New Jersey deal with the pressures and after-effects of inflation, our state’s low and middle-income families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads,” said Governor Phil Murphy at the 2024 New Jersey Governor’s Conference on Housing and Economic Development in Atlantic City in September.
In his keynote address, Murphy described the “incredibly complex” challenge of lowering and stabilizing housing costs across the state. He said recent housing legislation is one of several steps his administration has taken toward stabilizing the state’s economy and affordable housing supply.
But these new rules haven’t come without legal pushback. In early September, nine towns sued the state to overturn the new law, which could delay implementation in building affordable housing.
Housing experts estimate the state faces a shortage of more than 200,000 affordable housing units for low-income families, impacting at least 25% of all renters in New Jersey according to the National Low Income Household Coalition.
This year’s New Jersey Governor’s Conference on Housing and Economic Development gathered 1,300 attendees to discuss the state’s affordable housing crisis. We attended to learn more about how state law impacts local housing development in the state’s 564 municipalities. As housing rules are set to change, here is some of what we heard from policymakers, developers and advocates at the two-day event.
A push for Missing Middle Housing
Throughout the conference, some panelists urged a push to build more “missing middle housing,” types of multi-family housing developers have built fewer and fewer in recent years, such as rowhomes, duplexes, triplexes and accessory dwelling units.
Research from New Jersey Future, a research and policy nonprofit, shows while these 2-4 unit housing options are often more affordable than detached single-family homes, they have declined dramatically from approximately 1 in 3 units in the 1950s to 1 in 6 in 2021.
Some legislators expressed support for more diverse housing opportunities. Both Governor Murphy and Assemblymember Yvonne Lopez praised the state budget’s inclusion of a $10 million investment for new accessory dwelling units, or secondary units added to existing single-family homes. The recent piece of legislation will distribute up to $1 million to at least 10 towns or cities ready to increase accessory dwelling units.
Why this matters: The new set of affordable housing obligations signed into law in March is intended to expand more affordable housing options for New Jerseyans, especially in more affluent areas that have fewer affordable housing options.
If you’re in one of the municipalities affected by the Mount Laurel Doctrine, this could mean you may see more diverse housing types and multi-family housing units that are more accessible to people with low and moderate incomes.
“[The bill] will expedite the construction of affordable housing near transit hubs, generating more jobs,” said Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz in a statement.
Exploring solutions that merge affordability and sustainability
From community solar farms to “low hanging fruit” solutions like low-flow water fixtures, several developers and energy enthusiasts unveiled solutions that aim to offer homes that are both affordable and sustainable.
Dimension Energy’s community solar farms were one notable example raised at one panel at the conference. Made possible by the state’s Community Solar Energy Program, Dimension’s solar farms install solar panels on warehouse rooftops and convert them into electricity. Its customers can join the community farms and receive “solar credits” which lowers their monthly utility bills. The state program reserves 51% of all solar energy generated from the program for low and moderate-income households.
Melissa Miles, executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Alliance, added that failing to reconcile developers’ “dirty energy decisions” will disproportionately impact the health and well-being of communities of color.
“When we turn on the lights, flush the toilet, we get in our cars, there is an impact for all of that,” said Miles. “Most of the facilities that make all that happen are located in low-income and communities of color throughout the state.”
Why this matters: The state’s low-income communities and communities of color have disproportionately been impacted by “pollution from numerous industrial, commercial and governmental facilities located in those communities,” and have resulted in high rates of asthma and cardiovascular disease, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Scarce discussion about remedying segregation’s lasting impact on housing in New Jersey
According to the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Black and Latinx households in Essex County are half as likely to own a home than white households and three times more likely to live in poverty than white residents.
But in-depth discussions from lawmakers about how segregation disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx residents were limited.
One panel that raised the question was “A Statewide Action Agenda for Equitable Sustainable Housing.” Panelist Chris Sturm, policy director at New Jersey Future, explained that while New Jersey has grown more diverse in demographics, the state remains highly segregated at the municipal level due to the legacy of redlining, predatory lending and exclusion of Black veterans from the GI Bill.
Why this matters: The impact of segregation on housing spans well into other areas of daily life, like access to transportation and schools. “School segregation is a direct result of where people live, because schools are locally managed,” said Sturm after the conference. ”That’s why it’s so important to create more housing opportunities for everyone.”
Read more: In Essex County, New Jersey’s history of segregation persists
More to be done
During a gathering with New Jersey legislators, Assemblymember Yvonne Lopez said that the new affordable housing obligations were never meant to be “a panacea for all of New Jersey’s affordable housing problems.”
Lopez, who chairs the Assembly Housing Committee, said that production costs and sparsity of land are issues advocates, developers and legislators must consider if the state is serious about building enough affordable housing for all its residents. “There is certainly more to be done,” she said.
Why this matters:
2025 will usher in new housing mandates for New Jersey municipalities, a crowded governor’s race, and a new United States president, all of which could set the precedent for affordable housing accessibility going forward. New Jersey has passed several laws in recent years to combat racial discrimination in housing, but enforcement remains challenging.
In September, Acting Governor Tahesha Way passed legislation to ban discrimination in housing appraisals. Additionally, the state recently issued notices to 25 landlords for violating the state’s Fair Chance in Housing Act, which limits housing providers from asking or considering a person’s criminal history.