The struggle of residents to stay in their homes as new development continues at a rapid pace in and around Journal Square was at the forefront in a City Council Caucus Meeting on September 18. According to the area’s representative on the City Council, Rich Boggiano, residents are being pushed out by escalating housing costs: “I’ve seen so many of my neighbors leave here; renters that lived here for years and years and years and that just can’t afford to live here anymore … It’s a shame. I want to see what’s left of our community stay as our communities.”
In an effort to keep housing affordable in the Journal Square area, Boggiano introduced legislation requiring a minimum of 10% affordable housing in all new developments. This housing would be for households with up to 80% of the median income in the area ranging from very low to moderate.
In drafting this legislation, Boggiano’s office worked closely with the Journal Square Community Association‘s Affordable Housing Task Force. Michael Ehrmann, chair of the task force, spoke to the City Council providing more details on the legislation and why it was needed. According to Ehrmann, the set aside of 10% of new units for affordable housing would apply to new buildings with 30 or more units and would be in effect for 30 years.
In making the case for this legislation, Ehrmann highlighted the small number of affordable housing units created in comparison to market rate ones: “Of more than 20,000 new residential units completed, under construction or in the pipeline in the Journal Square redevelopment area, only 198 – less than 1% of the total – have been developed as affordable housing.”
Ehrmann also noted how long it has been since new affordable housing has been created in the Journal Square area: “No new affordable housing has been built and made available for occupation in the Journal Square Redevelopment Area since 2007 … [and] the majority of affordable housing in the Journal Square area was built 40 or more years ago.”
The core of the problem according to Ehrmann, is that Journal Square’s 2060 Redevelopment Plan does not require developers to include affordable housing in their projects – unless they request a zoning variance to add more floors and housing units to their buildings, However, since the redevelopment plan rezoned the area to include much higher buildings – as much as 70 stories – developers have no incentive to include affordable housing in their projects. Ehrmann emphasized this pointing out that there has been only one request for a zoning variance in the last 3 years.
While agreeing with the aim of the legislation to require developers to include affordable housing in their projects, Peter Baker, the city’s corporation counsel cautioned that it would be challenged on the grounds that it violates developers’ property rights. This view was echoed by the mayor’s spokesperson, Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, who said the mayor supports the legislation to create more affordable housing, but as currently worded, is “inconsistent with state law.”
Because of the concern over the legality of proposed legislation on affordable housing, the City Council voted to send it to the Planning Board and the Corporation Counsel to review with the purpose of achieving the aims of the legislation without risking a legal challenge. However the fear of a legal challenge may be misplaced since Newark and New York City as well as cities across the U.S., have required affordable housing in all new developments without any legal challenges. Closer to home may be city officials’ fear of slowing down development. That’s what an editorial in the Jersey Journal suggested. While agreeing with a legal review of the legislation, it urged the city not to use it as a “developer-friendly stalling tactic.” There may be some basis for this concern since the Journal Square Community Association has been working to get this kind of legislation passed for two years.
While significant in making affordable housing mandatory in new buildings for the first time, the proposed legislation will result in the creation of a relatively small number of affordable housing units. In practice, it means that for every 100 market rate or luxury housing units built, only ten affordable housing units will be created. The ratio of luxury to affordable housing is so great that further gentrification is inevitable.
In rezoning Journal Square, as well as the rest of the city, to allow for much taller buildings the city raised property values stimulating the growth of luxury housing. But, in adding so much value to land and buildings for developers, the city required little of them in terms of housing for working and middle class residents As a result, the city’s workers and families are left to struggle to find housing they can afford in a city rapidly gentrifying through public policy.
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Jersey City Today 