TRENTON—Chris Daggett, independent candidate for Governor, today unveiled a comprehensive plan for overhauling New Jersey’s affordable housing policies to prevent sprawl and to more closely align the goals with the objectives of the State Plan. (Read Chris Daggett’s Speech )

In unveiling a detailed housing policy, Daggett said affordable housing needs to be located in centers and along transit corridors with ready access to jobs, transportation and recreation opportunities. The creation of affordable housing units should not conflict with other state policies, such as smart growth, open space preservation and infrastructure investment.

‘’After 35 years, the landmark Mt. Laurel doctrine requiring municipalities to provide a fair share of affordable housing remains sound, but conditions are very  different today,’’ Daggett said. “It is time to develop affordable strategies that can be seamlessly woven into the fabric of State Plan policies and promote, rather than undermine, its goals.’’

Too often, the state’s current affordable housing regulations are driven by false assumptions and fail to account for new population trends, he said.  The state Council on Affordable Housing projects 52,000 new jobs will be created every year when, in fact, 65,700 jobs have been lost in New Jersey in the last five years, Daggett said.

To ascertain the real housing needs, Daggett would convene a Housing Policy Task Force, comprised of all housing stakeholders, to gather facts and accurate, updated data on housing trends, foreclosures in New Jersey, and other information needed to address the needs of workforce housing.

His plan would also mandate that once fair share housing obligations are met, a community’s zoning could not be overridden by court decisions.  An appellate court decision regarding a case from Easthampton in Burlington County last month affirmed that affordable housing must be deemed an “inherently beneficial” use when local governmental bodies consider applications for zoning variances.  The ruling has led many local and state officials to be concerned that such a ruling will lead to zoning being overturned to accommodate affordable housing even in COAH compliant communities.

The housing policy recommends restoring Regional Contribution Agreements, a practice where towns satisfied their affordable housing obligations by paying other communities to build housing units, on the condition it results in new housing units in the host municipality.

“These agreements can fuel urban reinvestment and allow opportunities for affordable housing to be built in mass transit served suburban communities,’’ Daggett said. “RCAs for new units should be permitted statewide.’’

The plan also proposes that government should take advantage of current declining housing values to increase the supply of affordable housing before the next housing market upswing. Such market-driven strategies could include conversions of single-family homes to two-family homes. Single family conversions make more efficient use of existing housing resources and public infrastructure.

In addition, families who are in foreclosure prevention programs and in danger of losing their homes should be deemed exempt from COAH’s affirmative marketing obligations, not forced to move out and participate in a lottery for their own homes, as is the case today, Daggett said.

Finally, the plan recognizes the increasingly important role passenger rail will play in achieving smart growth goals. His plan proposes New Jersey invest in improving and expanding passenger rail service along existing commuter lines and reactivating lines that were discontinued during the time when the sprawl trend took hold.

Chris Daggett’s Speech on Housing

In a continuing effort to present my position on a number of issues facing the state, today I am here to talk about housing.

For almost 35 years, since the New Jersey Supreme Court’s first Mount Laurel ruling,  two important state needs — to create affordable housing and to prevent suburban sprawl - have been on a collision course.

The State Development and Redevelopment Plan was painstakingly constructed as New Jersey’s official land use policy document for the state after nearly a decade of meetings with stakeholders from every sector of society. Yet the State Plan has been consistently undermined by court decisions compelling the construction of new housing on fields and farmland that drive up property taxes without providing adequate housing stock for the people who need it the most.

Most recently, a state court panel last month ruled in a case involving Easthampton in Burlington County that affordable housing is considered “inherently beneficial” even though a town has met its fair share housing obligation. The decision has led some local and state officials to ask what is the incentive for towns to comply with the state Council on Affordable Housing to meet their fair share obligation if  that effort can be ignored. Too much money is spent by towns and builders in lawsuits over the issue of affordable housing.

New Jersey’s housing need is a moving target because the data on which the need is based are inaccurate at best. COAH’s projection of New Jersey’s housing need was based on the assumption that New Jersey would add more than 790,000 jobs between 2004 and 2018. Instead, New Jersey has lost 65,700 jobs since 2004, and Rutgers economists do not expect the state to regain those jobs until 2020. The job growth that all of these COAH targets and court decisions are based upon is not going to occur in that original timeframe.

Overriding the goals of the State Plan to require the construction of more housing on fields and farms forces up property taxes in order to provide new classrooms and additional services. It makes New Jersey less affordable and drives people to move to more affordable states.

We have met the enemy, and it is us.

I am not saying that New Jersey has no affordable housing need. On the contrary, New Jersey has a very strong need for affordable housing, but we need it where jobs are located and mass transit is readily available.

Regional Contribution Agreements, a practice where towns satisfy their affordable housing obligations by paying other communities to build housing units, should be reinstated statewide on the condition that they produce new housing units in the host municipality, rather than simply renovate existing units. These agreements can fuel urban reinvestment and allow opportunities for affordable housing to be built in mass transit served suburban communities.

We should also take advantage of current declining housing values to increase the supply of affordable housing before the next housing market upswing. Such market-driven strategies should include conversions of single-family homes to two-family homes. Single-family conversions make more efficient use of existing housing resources and public infrastructure.

Most important, we need to revise the Fair Housing Act and COAH to make sure that the
creation of affordable housing units does not conflict with the State Plan and the policies laid out in the plan, including smart growth, open space preservation and infrastructure investment. After 35 years, the landmark Mount Laurel doctrine requiring municipalities to provide a fair share of affordable housing remains sound, but conditions are very different today. It is time to develop affordable housing strategies that can be seamlessly woven into the fabric of State Plan policies, and that promote rather than undermine State Plan goals.

We need to change COAH’s fair share methodology to reflect current and projected economic and housing market needs and conditions.  We simply must develop accurate data upon which to base our decisions so that we are guided by facts rather than ideology.

And, we simply must provide the proper balance in public policy decisions.  For example, families who are in foreclosure prevention programs and in danger of losing their homes should clearly be exempt from COAH’s affirmative marketing obligations, not forced to move out and participate in a lottery for their own homes, as is the case today.

To accomplish these goals, we need to convene a Housing Policy Task Force made up of representatives of all interested parties to consider updated population and housing trends, available and appropriate space for affordable new housing, the impact of foreclosures and declining housing prices, and how to most appropriately balance the goals of the State Plan with constitutional and court mandates.

This group must have a strict timeframe, perhaps four to six months, to complete its work, and it must have the full support and involvement of the governor.  It is important not to drag out this process and it is important to have the governor’s focused attention and leadership.  It is time to resolve the affordable housing issue in New Jersey and build the houses that we need.

I do not expect that revising New Jersey’s housing policies will be easy, any more than balancing the budget or controlling property taxes, will be easy. It will take the leadership of an independent governor, not beholden to special interests and with a history of bringing together stakeholders with varied interests to solve complex problems.

I look forward to the challenge.