N.J. lawmaker wants to delay Gov. Christie's plan to transfer affordable housing funds

TRENTON -The head of a legislative panel examining Gov. Chris Christie’s demand that municipalities surrender unused affordable housing funds wants to delay the transfers, at least until lawmakers know how the $161 million will be allocated.

At a special hearing of the Housing and Local Government Committee today, Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Union), chairman of the panel, said towns that have made a good-faith attempt build their share of affordable housing units shouldn’t be penalized by being stripped of the funds.

A law enacted in 2008 requires municipalities to relinquish to the state all money that was not committed by July 17 to low- and moderate-income housing projects.

Many towns have complained the panel overseeing the projects, the Council on Affordable Housing, has not given them clear decisions on whether projects are approved and the funds are considered committed.

The towns have until Monday to tell the Department of Community Affairs, which oversees COAH, why their funds should not be taken. At the same time, the appellate division is considering a request by a housing advocacy group to block the transfer of the funds until COAH addresses the towns’ complaints.

Christie last year abolished COAH and transferred its duties to the Community Affairs Department, but an appellate court ordered it reinstated this year, saying Christie lacked the authority to disband the panel.

Local officials said that even with the council reinstated, they haven’t received answers to their questions, noting the panel hasn’t met in more than 18 months and may not even has enough members to meet.

"We heard a lot, but we can’t even start to correct anything because we don’t know who’s in control," Green said. "We need to rethink this. That was the purpose of me asking for two more years."

Green sponsored a bill extending the July 17 deadline to transfer the money by two years but Christie, a Republican, vetoed the measure, saying the towns had more than enough time to comply with the law signed by his Democratic predecessor.

Kevin Roberts, a Christie spokesman, said Green "has been one of the biggest impediments of real, bipartisan affordable housing reform passing in the Assembly."

"So it’s beyond hypocritical for him to stand in the way of bipartisan solutions that would have fixed the system for the last two years, then cast his own vote in favor of a budget bill this year that spends these funds, and now decide to criticize how they are being used," Roberts said.

Deputy Community Affairs Commissioner Chuck Richmond said the money would be doled out by the state for other affordable housing initiatives, including for residents with developmental disabilities. He said towns like Marlboro and Monroe have been sitting for decades on millions of dollars that should have been spent for affordable housing units.

"We shouldn’t talk about extending in the future what ought to have been built in the past," he told the committee. "Four years is generally more than enough time to build anything — even in the state of New Jersey."

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger