Affordable Housing The Hot Topic Of Perry/Morris Middletown Debate

MIDDLETOWN, NJ ? Affordable housing was the hot topic at the Middletown Township Committee debate, held Tuesday night.

You can watch the debate here; it was moderated by a member of the League of Women Voters who lives in Neptune. She asked many questions submitted by Middletown residents.

Mayor Tony Perry, a Republican, and Mike Morris, Democrat, are battling each other for one seat on the Township Committee.

And their face-off got heated Tuesday, with Perry accusing Morris of doing the bidding of Gov. Phil Murphy (who lives in Middletown and endorsed Morris), and Morris accusing Perry of "fear mongering" on new affordable housing mandates from the state.

Perry and Morris don't agree on much, but where they differ most is on affordable housing: Morris thinks Middletown needs to comply with the state's new affordable housing quotas, just released Friday.

Whereas Perry thinks Middletown needs to fight the new quotas, calling them on his Facebook page this week "the latest and completely unreasonable mandate for high-density housing, under the guise of 'affordability.'"

In his opening remarks, Morris said: "Middletown is at a critical moment right now: Middletown is dealing with an affordability crisis. Young people who grew up here are finding it difficult to stay in the community they love. And seniors are being pushed out by the skyrocketing property tax."

"I would like to provide more opportunities for our young people to stay in our community, and not be priced out," Morris continued. "Seniors who have been living in town for years, who may have inherited some property and are living on family land, can't afford our property taxes. I would like to confront how we collect our property taxes and look at the annual assessments and see how they are driving property taxes through the roof."

Property taxes have gone up in Middletown in the past eight years, with increases going to fund the schools and preserve open space.

In fact, in his opening remarks, Perry emphasized that preserving open space has been one of the main goals in his time as mayor. There will also be a question on the ballot about preserving more open space in Middletown, which Perry encouraged residents to vote "yes" for.

Perry said Tuesday night's forum was "the opportunity to hear two different visions of Middletown."

Middletown must build new affordable housing units, state of NJ says

On Friday, the state of New Jersey released a new set of affordable housing obligations for each of the state's 564 towns. These are quotas that New Jersey towns/cities must meet over the next 10 years.

You can read the state's list here: https://www.nj.gov/dca/dlps/pd...

Middletown is required to build 346 new affordable units. But Perry said the number is actually much higher: Perry said developers use affordable housing mandates to build hundreds of market-rate units, with a handful of affordable units thrown in. He warned the state is putting Middletown at risk of having to build 5,400 new housing units.

"If you want to know what is making towns across New Jersey unaffordable, it's these constant unfunded mandates like high-density housing that Mr. Morris is referring to," said Perry in the debate. "That is what is pricing out our young people and our seniors. You need to hire more police officers, build new schools, expand our schools. That is what is rising property taxes. I'm not sure how we can address affordability without addressing these unfunded mandates the state is jamming down our throat."

Morris then accused Perry of exaggerating that 5,400 number.

"I don't know where Tony gets his numbers that 5,000 housing units need to be done, but Middletown is required to only provide 346 units over the next 10 years," countered Morris. "Where he gets 5,000 units is a crazy notion that only Tony can explain because it comes out his mouth as a way to fear monger people."

"What Morris is failing to understand is that no developer creates just affordable housing," shot back Perry. "When you say 346 units, you have to multiple that. No developer just creates affordable housing. They have to create four units for every one affordable unit."

Where does Perry get that 5,400 number from? On Wednesday, the morning after the debate, Perry told Patch there is already an existing affordable mandate from the state that says Middletown must build 1,000 affordable units.

"The state mandate is every new development must be 20 percent affordable. So, 1,000 times four, plus the new 346 requirement," said Perry.

In 2019, Patch was the only media outlet to report that Middletown took the extremely unusual step of withdrawing from the state's affordable housing mandates. It was a decision that left the town open to being sued by developers for not complying with the state's quotas, in what are called "builders' remedy" lawsuits.

Since then, Middletown has indeed been sued by developers.

At Tuesday night's forum, Morris brought up those lawsuits, which are costing Middletown taxpayers.

"We are spending hundreds of thousands on dollars on builders' remedy lawsuits," he said. "That's outrageous. The taxpayers have to pay that."

Perry maintained Middletown will continue to fight NJ's affordable housing mandates, and have legal battles if necessary.

"We need to challenge the system," said Perry. "I am fighting for Middletown. I won't apologize for fighting for Middletown."

Increasing Middletown traffic also a concern

Morris also blamed Perry for increasing traffic in Middletown, particularly on Hwy. 36.

"They say they've done traffic studies, but I don't see any improvements anywhere," said Morris.

Morris also said Middletown Township is "opaque," which Perry retorted was "insulting to the team in our comms department. Middletown is as transparent as they can be, far more than most of the municipalities surrounding us."

Bail reform also a hot topic

Perry also used the forum to attack cash-less bail reform, which he said "has put in danger the residents of the entire state."

New Jersey does not have cash bail anymore: Most people arrested are let out until their next court date, with the most serious offenders (those accused of murder, sex assault) held in jail until trial.

Morris countered that "Tony doesn't mention that bail reform was signed into law by Chris Chris. He likes to fault Democrats for (bail reform), but Chris Christie signed that into law, so we weren't creating a debtors' prison in New Jersey like it had been. Cash bail was allowing rich offenders to pay their bail while less affluent offenders were kept in jail until trial. States from around America are coming to New Jersey to see how we've done it. Bail reform has been a terrific, tremendous success."

Morris accused Perry of pointing to "one or two examples" where a repeat offender violated their bail.

Morris is also calling for the people of Middletown to elect their own mayor, instead of the Township Committee (all Republican) choosing the mayor.

Perry said the residents of Middletown "aren't concerned with who or how the mayor is elected." He called it "a made-up issue that the Democrats of Middletown have put forward again and again that doesn't seem to be resonating with the voters."

Watch the whole debate here; it lasted 58 minutes: https://lwvmonmouth.org/vid78....

Middletown Withdraws From NJ's Affordable Housing Mandate (2019)

Election day is Nov. 5, but early, in-person voting begins this Saturday, Oct. 26.

Middletown's early voting location is the Senior Center at Croydon Hall at 900 Leonardville Road, Leonardo NJ 07737.

Hours will be Monday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.?8:00 p.m. and Sunday, 10:00 a.m.?6:00 p.m. from Oct. 26 - Nov. 3.

If you plan to drop off your mail-in ballot, use the drop-off box located at the Middletown Township Public Library (55 New Monmouth Road).