Ex-Mercer County Mayor Launches Affordable Housing Reform Group

A former mayor from Mercer County has launched a new group, Citizens Improving Affordable Housing, which is aimed at reforming the way affordable housing is done in the state.

Jim Burd, a former Hopewell Township Mayor and Planning Board Member, said he and his group are looking to modify the way affordable housing is handled in the state. He said there are 15 core members of the group, with many more helping behind the scenes. It is a statewide group that chose to launch its platform at Moorestown's (Burlington County) council meeting on May 21.

He told Patch on Monday afternoon he planned to attend the meeting because more than 60 residents in Moorestown and Mount Holly had been served notice in connection with Pennrose’s proposed four-story apartment complex. The developer needs to have a restrictive covenant invalidated so it can begin work on the project, and residents are calling it a project that forces the residents of Moorestown to be sued.

Read more here: Restrictive Covenant Poses Problem For Affordable Housing Project

On Monday night, Burd spoke about the need to reform a troubled affordable housing system, and called out state legislators in Trenton who have done nothing to solve the problem.

“We are asking for a moratorium on all affordable housing,” Burd said. “We need to look at this, set it up properly and do it all again. I’m asking for your assistance on that.”

The number of required affordable housing units in municipalities statewide has been in dispute, and often in litigation, since 1999. In 2015, authority concerning setting affordable housing requirements for municipalities throughout the state fell on the courts.

This is the third round of affordable housing requirements that have been issued since two court decisions in the 1970s established that municipalities must have an affordable housing aspect to their master plans, and the numbers for municipalities is starting to come into focus.

West Windsor has been told it must build 1,500 new affordable housing units by 2025.

Along with the courts, the Fair Share Housing Center has had influence over municipal affordable housing obligations, Burd argues. The Fair Share Housing Center is the non-profit group formed to help enforce the Mount Holly Doctrine, ensuring the housing rights of all New Jersey residents.

In the absence of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), Burd and Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-39) both say the Fair Share Housing Center has too much influence. They are looking to limit that influence.

Schepisi said most people, including many legislators, don't understand the issue. She accuses the Fair Share Housing Center of employing bullying tactics to get municipalities to build the number of affordable housing units they think they should have. She also alleges that any legislator who opposes affordable housing is labeled a "racist" and an enemy of the poor, and thus have done nothing when it comes to the issue.

A representative from the Fair Share Housing Center didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Schepisi is one of the few state legislators that has taken an active interest in the issue. In saying townships were told they need to build up, she is talking about multiple-story apartment and condo buildings.

Schepisi is proposing shifting the obligations from the municipalities to the state, meaning the state would decide where to put affordable housing. Currently, communities designated as “urban aid communities” have no affordable housing obligation. However, a number for those municipalities are still calculated, and their obligations are passed on to the surrounding towns. Schepisi’s proposal would end that practice.

She also proposes including foreclosed homes, vacant properties and new construction in the obligation, and taking into account a town’s current population, infrastructure, water and sewer capacities, school class size and services and what the impact will be on municipal services, such as police, fire, ambulance, public transportation and traffic.

She is also looking to eliminate the builder’s remedy, which allows an intervenor developer to come in and propose affordable housing development for municipalities. In the municipality is unable to come up with its own number, the courts often impose the builder’s remedy.

Schepisi’s solution is to give municipalities the right to reject any proposal that would increase housing by more than 5 percent in 10 years.

Schepisi and Burd also look to limit the influence of the Fair Share Housing Center, the non-profit group formed to help enforce the Mount Holly Doctrine, ensuring the housing rights of all New Jersey residents. In the absence of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), they both say the Fair Share Housing Center has too much influence.

Schepisi said her efforts stagnated with the unfortunate passing of longtime Housing Committee Chair Jerry Green. Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-35) has been named the new chair, and she hopes to meet with him soon.

Burd said he intends to visit other municipalities to discuss his group and the issue at large in the near future.

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