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City mayors cite
benefits of suburban subsidies
Panel demands funds
to replace affordable-housing buyouts
By GREGORY J. VOLPE,
thnt.com Online, June 9, 2007
TRENTON — A group of urban
mayors issued several demands Thursday before they could support legislation
eliminating the practice in which richer suburban communities pay poorer cities
to take some of their affordable-housing obligation.
The mayors said the regional-contribution agreements, or RCAs, have done wonders
for redeveloping their cities and giving people the opportunity to own a home.
Critics say the arrangements go against the notion of inclusive affordable
housing, sending affordable housing to cities and preventing the poor from
living in the suburbs.
Such pacts would be eliminated under legislation pushed by Assembly Speaker
Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, but the mayors said several conditions must be
met in order to ensure they and their constituents still reap the benefits they
get under RCAs.
Among the mayors' demands were:
• Giving distressed cities funding to attract
moderate- and market-income housing
• Constitutionally dedicating a new
real-estate-transfer tax to subsidize construction of affordable housing in
cities
• Offsetting school costs and using a housing
tax credit to spur affordable housing in the suburbs
• Creating a commission to address
affordable-housing issues.
Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, past president of the New Jersey Urban Mayors
Association, said of the regional-contribution agreements: "We know that
they are flawed, but they still comprise the only technique urban cities now
have to help working families buy homes. The elimination of RCAs can only
be considered in the context of a comprehensive discussion of the state of
affordable housing."
In a statement, Roberts said work on the legislation will continue through the
fall.
During the 2005 gubernatorial campaign, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he opposed RCAs.
Gregory J. Volpe:
gvolpe@gannett.com
Posted June 8, 2007
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