9 New Jersey Mayors Sue Over State Affordable Housing Law

Eight New Jersey mayors filed a lawsuit earlier this month against a recently enacted state housing law, S50/A4, which standardized requirements for municipalities to build more housing. According to an article by Brianna Kudisch for NJ.com, the lawsuit claims the state law exceeds what is constitutionally required under state Supreme Court decisions that “outlawed exclusionary zoning practices and required all towns in New Jersey to provide their fair share of the region’s affordable housing” and questions the law’s exemption of 62 municipalities from having affordable housing obligations.

The article reports that an additional eight municipalities are expected to join the lawsuit later the month, but says affordable housing advocates are confident the suit has no legal standing and predict it will be thrown out of court. Adam Gordon, the executive director of the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center, told NJ.com the lawsuit is a “smokescreen” meant to delay implementation of the law, put forth by “ultra-wealthy communities who have fought affordable housing for decades.”

The plaintiffs claim the law takes away their towns’ say in how they grow, but Gordon told NJ.com that the state law in question “gives towns tools — including new bonuses, financing options and credits — to build affordable housing in the way they want….Towns only lose their ability to be in control of the process when they refuse to find any place to create their fair share of affordable housing.”

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, New Jersey has a shortage of 214,000 units of affordable rental housing, and of the 25 percent of the state’s renter households that are extremely low income (making less than $33,290 annually), 74 percent are severely cost burdened.