Gloucester Township Republican Blasts Aspect Of Housing Plan

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Gloucester Township has plans underway to meet its affordable housing obligations by 2025, but a resident is raising questions about one aspect of the program he says is doing nothing to help the township.

At the March 22 Gloucester Township Council meeting, prominent Republican Ray Polidoro raised questions about the market-to-affordable program the township is using, which he says has “turned out to be a dud.”

As part of the program, Triad Associates is tasked with finding available market rate homes and fixing them up, so the township can market them with an affordable housing deed restriction.
But in the 16 months the program has existed, nothing has happened, Polidoro said.

“If those market-to-affordable homes are not going to figure into our responsibility for affordable, then this should be a no-brainer that this program should be halted,” Polidoro said. “Money’s going out, nothing’s coming about. There’s people making money off a program that’s designed to do absolutely nothing for this township. This is not helping the people of this township or the folks who need those homes. It’s a waste of money, and a waste of time.”

Council members didn't respond to his comments at the meeting. The mayor's office didn't respond to a request for comment on this issue from Patch.

The township is required to add 1,014 affordable housing units by 2025 under its third round obligations, according to information previously provided by Business Administrator Tom Cardis. It has already met its prior round obligation of 359 units, and is in the process of rehabilitating 135 units by 2025, Cardis said.

There are a number of methods townships can use to bring affordable housing into their municipalities, and the township is using several. Township Council has approved plans for other developments, including those that use a mix of retail and housing, a mix of market rate and affordable homes and affordable housing that is earmarked for veterans.

There are two projects underway in Gloucester Township that are aimed at helping the township fulfill its third round affordable housing obligations, according to information provided by the township.

One is for 72 multifamily apartments, with 11 set aside for affordable housing, at 1495 Chews Landing Road. The other is for 100 affordable family units, including 13 for very low income families, as part of an overall development at Southwinds (AKA the Blackwood West Redevelopment Area, AKA Mingus Run).

Neither project is part of the market-to-affordable program.

The obligation is set forth by the Superior Court. Affordable housing was formerly overseen by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) after the state Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for any town to zone in a way that made it impossible to build affordable housing in that town in 1975.

COAH set quotas for each town under the Fair Housing Act in the 1980s, and towns fulfilled their obligations over multiple rounds. However, COAH stopped acting on its oversight obligations in the late 1990s.

In 2015, authority concerning setting affordable housing requirements for municipalities throughout the state fell on the courts. In many cases, municipalities have worked with the Fair Share Housing Center to determine their third round obligations. The center says it "fights to defend the rights of New Jersey’s poor by monitoring, enforcing and expanding the Mount Laurel Doctrine."