News from Assemblyman Green

Green: Court Decision Backs What We Have Been Saying All Along; Gov. Christie Has No Right To Take Affordable Housing Funds

(TRENTON) – Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jerry Green (D-Union/Middlesex/Somerset) issued the following statement concerning today’s New Jersey Appellate Court ruling blocking the Christie administration from taking municipal housing trust funds. The appellate court ruled that the administration does not have the authority to take $161 million in affordable housing money from municipalities without convening the independent board of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

“I’m glad today’s appellate court decision has confirmed what I and others who have worked on this issue have been saying since Gov. Christie announced his intentions to raid COAH funds.

“The governor did not have the right to usurp the COAH board and take those funds.

“It was painfully obvious from our discussion Wednesday that DCA had no plan in place to address affordable housing needs in New Jersey, once that money was taken from municipalities.

“My colleagues and I should not have to publicly ask that the funds be left alone until we have a plan in place that meets our affordable housing obligations, before we hear a practical plan from the administration. The administration and the Legislature, with input from pertinent organizations, must come up with a structure that will afford New Jerseyans of lower means reasonably priced housing”.