Corzine should
advocate for affordable housing
EDITORIAL, from the
Home News Tribune Online January 28, 2007
In 2004, the administration of then
Gov. James E. McGreevey, who had ignored both the spirit and the letter of the
state's affordable-housing laws as Woodbridge mayor, promulgated new regulations
for the Council on Affordable Housing. The revised regulations were so
egregious and so disingenuous, they gutted the state's landmark Mount Laurel
rulings, even as they heaped promises upon housing advocates. Last week,
thankfully, the McGreevey administration's charade was revealed when an appeals
court struck down the revised regulations. The court agreed the
administration's reasoning "defied comprehension" and was based on lousy data.
It said the rules discriminated against families and ignored facts. And it
said the state's new rules would not result in nearly enough affordable housing.
As the court put it, "The rules frustrate, rather than further, a realistic
opportunity for affordable housing."
The good news is that Gov. Jon S. Corzine seems more committed to affordable
housing than his predecessor; he has pledged to build 100,000 affordable housing
units in the next 10 years. The bad news is that Corzine has kept the
woman responsible for devising the lousy regulations in the first place.
Susan Bass Levin, like McGreevey, is a former mayor and an opponent of
affordable housing, and is now the head of the Department of Community Affairs
and therefore the Council on Affordable Housing.
As the spokeswoman for the Corzine administration on issues of housing, Levin
has struck a more conciliatory and progressive tone than she ever did under
McGreevey. Here's hoping she, and the new governor, mean to live up to
that tone.
The ball is now in the Corzine administration's court. It could appeal
this ruling to the Supreme Court; or it otherwise has been given six months to
revise its regulations. People on all sides recognize that time is of the
essence. There is, after all, only a limited amount of developable land
left in the state, and while the amount of affordable housing built since 2004
has been minimal, market-rate building has boomed, meaning there is ever less
space available to correct the inequities.
Appealing the ruling would waste time and, given the language of this judgment
and the Supreme Court's history in this matter, seems unlikely to result in a
ruling more favorable to the government, or at least to Levin. It is
vital, therefore, that Corzine seize the opportunity to dispense with the flawed
regulations of his predecessor that run counter to his own goals — advocates
estimate the McGreevey rules would produce just 12,000 affordable units over
their life, 88,000 fewer than Corzine has proposed — and to craft a new
affordable housing framework. It is difficult to overstate how important
such regulations would be, both to the workers who are in need of more
affordable living spaces — and those range from police officers and teachers to
restaurant and lawn-care employees — and to the state's constant struggle to
achieve environmentally sustainable growth.
As ground-breaking as the Mount Laurel rulings were, implementation of them
always has been flawed, mostly because the state has lacked the will to override
municipal governments' traditional hold over issues pertaining to planning and
zoning. For the sake of the state as a whole, Corzine must overcome that
queasiness. It is beyond time for the state to have more authority in
determining how it will develop, otherwise New Jersey is headed for
environmental, social and economic instability.
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