Control gentrification in Jersey City now, community leaders say. Residents are being pushed out of their homes.

(This Op-ed originally appeared on NJ.com on 4/18/19)

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/04/control-gentrification-in-jersey-city-now-community-leaders-say-residents-

being-pushed-out-of-their-homes.html

Long-time residents of Jersey City are being pushed out

Updated Apr 18, 3:31 PM; Posted Apr 18, 2:04 PM

By Richard Smith and Christian Estevez

With skyrocketing rents outpacing what most ordinary people can afford, Jersey City should be coming to terms with the fact that its residents are being priced out and forced out.

Developers who are making unfathomable amounts of money building homes for wealthy new residents have no incentive to solve this problem. It is time for Mayor Steven Fulop and the City Council to adopt an effective policy that requires developers to make at least 20 percent of new homes affordable as a way to curb the gentrification that is emptying Jersey City of longtime residents. In the case of city-owned land, or when public subsidies are used, the percent should go above 20 percent.

For decades, our state’s urban cores suffered from disinvestment, while wealthy suburban communities boomed. This disparity, driven by many towns’ exclusionary zoning laws, has helped make New Jersey one of the most racially and economically segregated states in the country.

As New Jersey’s urban communities revitalize, working families and communities of color in places like Jersey City are at the losing end of a real estate market that pursues profits over fairness and high rents over fair rents.

After living in Jersey City through challenging decades of disinvestment, lower-income African American and Latino families are being particularly threatened with displacement as investment floods in.

While we welcome additional investment in New Jersey’s cities, it must not come at the cost of displacement and homelessness. Our elected officials have an obligation to prevent the negative impacts that rapid gentrification has on our state’s most vulnerable communities.

Jersey City’s elected leaders must act – or they risk turning the city into an exclusive enclave of the rich and powerful.

It is irresponsible that Jersey City has added thousands of new apartments in recent years, rewarding developers with lucrative density increases, without putting inclusionary zoning requirements in place to protect lower-income families – as permitted under state law.

Left to their own devices, powerful developers will build housing for people earning over $100,000 annually and call these units “affordable.”

But that is not where the greatest need is.

Jersey City must target new affordable housing requirements to protect families earning as little as $20,000 to $45,000 per year – where the need is greatest.

And officials must prevent new requirements from being undermined by loopholes that would allow developers to wriggle out of their affordable housing requirements.

An effective fair housing policy must focus on housing – not be subverted as a tool to meet other goals while allowing gentrification to take over the city.

Mayor Fulop’s press releases and social media posts in recent years have claimed that his administration is going to address this issue. Most recently, the mayor wrote on social media last November that “Jersey City will be enacting an inclusionary zoning ordinance like many other major cities. … It is very close to becoming reality and will be a huge benefit to keeping Jersey City a special mixed-income community.”

But to date, there has been no real progress. While the mayor’s promises go unmet, developers are making Jersey City a “special” community for New York transplants who think nothing of paying $1 million for a condo – at the expense of the city’s African-American and Latino residents.

Indeed, while Jersey City stands still, other nearby cities have put in place protections for longtime residents and adopted equitable housing policies, including Hoboken, Newark and Union City. These ordinances require homes to be affordable at the lowest possible ranges.

Hoboken is even in the process of strengthening its affordable housing ordinance.

These gentrifying communities have benefited from the leadership of mayors like Dawn Zimmer, Ravinder Bhalla, Ras Baraka, and Brian Stack. Yet in the face of incredible progress, Jersey City, which has the greatest potential and the highest need, lags behind.

The time for Jersey City to adopt an effective housing policy has arrived.

We urge Mayor Fulop and the City Council to do what should have been done long ago: Adopt an inclusionary zoning ordinance that ensures that all residents of Jersey 

City benefit from the private market interest in the city. The ordinance should require all developments to have a minimum of 20 percent affordable housing. No buyouts, no loopholes, and no scams.

We need legislation that forces developers to address the negative consequences of gentrification. And we need it now.

Christian Estevez is president of the Latino Action Network and Richard Smith is president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference.

N.J. Supreme Court must reject systemic racism in affordable housing debate

 

N.J. Supreme Court must reject systemic racism in affordable housing debate | Opinion

By Richard T. Smith and Christian 

Estevez

 

After 16 long years of Trenton gridlock, New Jersey municipalities are finally making meaningful progress addressing our state's pressing housing affordability crisis.

 

Thanks to a New Jersey Supreme Court decision handed down last year that turned over enforcement of our state's fair-housing laws to the judiciary, hundreds of municipalities are in the process of developing plans to provide tens of thousands of homes to meet the needs of working families, seniors and those with disabilities.

 

More than 70 towns have already reached agreements on their affordable housing obligations, which add up to more than 20,000 units. These settlements clear the way to quickly begin development on projects that provide decent, stable homes for New Jersey families in safe neighborhoods with access to jobs and good schools.

All of these recent advancements illustrate that a consensus is forming in New Jersey that municipalities can and should tackle their responsibility to provide fair-housing opportunities for families under the state constitution's Mount Laurel doctrine.

 

At heart, New Jersey's fair-housing laws aren't just about building homes. They're also about expanding ladders of opportunity to the middle class for the many thousands of families who are priced out of our state's many thriving communities.

 

While our state boasts some of the most desirable towns in the nation,  longstanding patterns of exclusionary zoning have shut too many New Jersey families out of the American Dream. These unconstitutional obstacles have hit minority communities -- especially African-Americans and Latinos -- the hardest.

 

Yet the progress we have made is being threatened by a group of recalcitrant municipalities that are seeking to undermine the Mount Laurel doctrine by pursuing a strategy of delay and obstruction. These towns are arguing they should not be held responsible for any of the state's fair-housing needs that accrued during a 16-year gap period beginning in 1999,  when bureaucratic gridlock kept New Jersey's fair-housing laws from being enforced.

 

In essence, these towns are arguing they should be able to ignore the many challenges New Jersey families confronted during this time, ranging from the Great Recession to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy and the state's ongoing foreclosure crisis.

 

These legal arguments would artificially paper over up to 60 percent of the state's housing need. This means that tens of thousands of New Jersey families will never have the chance to move into homes they can afford in the state's many thriving communities. And it will cement our state's long history of racial and socioeconomic segregation for another generation.

 

That's why our organizations have joined together to submit a friend of the court brief laying out the impact of this case on the struggle for racial integration in New Jersey. That brief has been accepted by the court.

Almost as disturbing is the housing study that these towns are relying on to make these dangerous arguments. The study, written by Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions, relies on a deeply flawed understanding that ignores the systemic racism which disadvantages New Jersey's minority communities, especially African-Americans and Latinos.

 

It argues that houses which have recently sold for up to a half-million dollars should be classified as affordable.

 

And Econsult principal Peter Angelides testified recently at an Ocean County fair-housing proceeding that there was "no measure" to indicate that New Jersey's minority communities still suffered from housing discrimination -- an astounding,  out-of-touch statement directly contradicting statistics showing that our state is one of the most segregated in the nation.

 

The New Jersey Supreme Court is set to take up the question of whether towns must truly do their fair share to respond to our state's housing crisis on Nov. 30.

 

The justices must reject these towns' radical ideology and vindicate their own 2015 landmark fair-housing ruling. The process the court established must be allowed to continue so that we can finally bring an end to the decades of litigation surrounding this issue.

 

It's time to turn to the work of building a state in which black and Latino families are no longer excluded.

 

Richard T. Smith is president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference 

(info@NJNAACP.org).

 

Christian Estevez is president of the Latino Action Network (esteveznj@gmail.com).

 

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http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/11/nj_supreme_court_must_reject_systemic_racism_in_af.html#incart_river_home

Blocking affordable housing segregates N.J.'s blacks and Latinos | Opinion

Blocking affordable housing segregates N.J.'s blacks and Latinos | Opinion

By Richard T. Smith and Christian Estevez

We are confronting a moral reckoning in New Jersey.

The Garden State remains one of the most segregated states in the country — where too often the color of one's skin determines a person's future.

This system of de facto segregation is undergirded by a long history of exclusionary zoning practices by suburban municipalities seeking to keep low-income residents confined to struggling inner cities, where they are unable to take steps toward achieving the American dream in the form of safe neighborhoods, good schools and access to jobs.

Thankfully, the state Supreme Court last year struck a much-needed blow on behalf of New Jersey's poor and marginalized.

In a unanimous decision, the court re-energized the strongest tool we have in the fight against segregation and exclusion. The principle, known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine, mandates that suburban municipalities across New Jersey do their fair share to provide housing opportunities for working families, seniors living on fixed incomes and those with disabilities.

Yet a core group of recalcitrant municipalities have taken a different path and decided to fall back on the same tired tactics of exclusion to delay the construction of new housing and to water down their obligations as much as possible. They would waste untold thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds in expensive and ugly litigation rather than fulfill their legal and moral mandate to build a more inclusive New Jersey.

These municipalities are arguing, incredibly, that they shouldn't have to address the demand for housing that accumulated during the 15-year period when New Jersey's housing laws are in flux. Instead, they want to be rewarded for their years of delays and are asking for permission to simply ignore the tens of thousands of families experiencing poverty during this time.

Three trial court judges — in Mercer, Middlesex and Ocean counties — have already correctly rejected such extremist arguments. Today, a three-judge panel of appellate judges was to take up the case.

While these towns are couching their arguments in complicated legal jargon, the impact of their position is clear. If successful, they will be able to effectively eliminate up to 60 percent of the state's housing need — meaning many New Jersey families will never be able to realize their dream of moving into a permanent home.

Our state's fair housing laws aren't just abstract principles. They represent real hope to tens of thousands of New Jerseyans — disproportionately African-Americans and Latinos — who have been systematically excluded from employment and educational opportunities.

The Supreme Court's strong decision cut through a mess of bureaucratic and political gridlock that had kept fair housing regulations from operating effectively for more than 15 years. The justices were clear: The constitution of the state of New Jersey required towns to step up and do more to ensure that all New Jerseyans can benefit from the prosperity so many of its communities have to offer.

As a result of this ruling, we are now finally starting to see towns make significant strides forward in increasing opportunities for New Jersey families. More than 10 municipalities across the state have agreed to permit nearly 8,000 homes to be built to meet the state's growing demand.

These settlements will provide thousands of working families, seniors and those with disabilities with homes in thriving communities for the first time. They represent a model for other towns to follow – and many more are currently involved in constructive discussions with developers and housing advocates about how they can provide additional opportunities to our families.

ZIP code matters. Where you live has a disproportionate impact on your life trajectory — including your educational prospects, your employability, your access to health care and healthy food, your likelihood of incarceration and your life expectancy.

The violence that plagues our urban communities falls disproportionately on the backs of young black and Latino men who, on account of their ZIP code, have been deprived of the opportunities they need to succeed.

We call on the courts to continue to protect the rights of these families and to continue to hold towns accountable to the letter and the spirit of New Jersey's Constitution.

Richard T. Smith is president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference.

Christian Estevez is the president of the Latino Action Network.. 

[This Op-Ed below appeared on NJ.com on June 6, 2016. You can read the original article on their website at: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/06/nj_civil_rights_leaders_blocking_affordable_housin.html]

New Jersey municipalities say black and Latino families, people with disabilities don't exist in new housing report

Civil rights leaders call for wealthy municipalities to stop pretending working poor don't exist

 

CHERRY HILL - Civil rights leaders are fighting back against a new  report commissioned by more than 200 towns across New Jersey that undercounts the pressing housing needs of low-income families, people with disabilities, and people of color. These towns are pursuing policies of exclusion while simultaneously attempting to hide a second publicly funded study that apparently shows far greater housing needs.

Towns, in the report they chose to release, relied on demonstrably false assumptions and legal trickery to make tens of thousands of working families, seniors and those with disabilities disappear. Their approach would disproportionately impact African-Americans and Latinos living in one of the nation's most segregated states.

"We have to name exclusion for what it is," said Mike McNeil, Housing Chairman of the New Jersey NAACP. "These mayors believe in Jim Crow. They're like Governor Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door against integration. These mayors are overwhelmingly standing on their borders saying people of color aren't welcome in their neighborhoods. We have been fighting this mindset since the 1960s. As long as there is racism and as long as there are people who want to keep us out, we'll keep on fighting.  One day we will win this fight."

McNeil was joined by Latino Action Network President Frank Argote-Freyre, who called on the state's judges to protect the constitutional rights of New Jerseyans by holding towns accountable to New Jersey's fair housing laws.

"This report is an attack on the civil rights of tens of thousands of Latino and African-American families," Argote-Freyre said. "If mayors across New Jersey refuse to do the right thing, we are going to have to force them to through the courts. New Jersey can be better than this and is better than this - but it is going to take continued work to overcome their discrimination."

This housing study is the latest in a long series of attempts by municipal officials to disregard the orders of the New Jersey Supreme Court and to evade the Mount Laurel Doctrine, the principle embedded in the state Constitution requiring that municipalities do their fair share to provide affordable housing opportunities to New Jersey families.

Municipal officials are also trying to hide an earlier housing study conducted by Rutgers University. Although Rutgers distributed a report to more than 200 municipalities, these towns are now going to court to fight against that report becoming public - likely because the report shows that the actual need for homes is greater than municipalities want to admit.

After stopping work with Rutgers, municipalities hired Philadelphia-based Econsult Solutions Inc. to come up with an alternative report, which is now being released as part of ongoing litigation involving municipal housing responsibilities.

The report differs strongly with a study by noted planner Dr. David N. Kinsey released in July, which found that New Jersey families need more than 200,000 additional affordable homes to combat the growing pressures of high property values, an ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis and the effects of Superstorm Sandy and a wave of casino closings that have left thousands jobless. This would meet the state's housing need from 1999 through 2025.

By contrast, this report, commissioned by a consortium of 200 towns that have banded together to fight inclusion, found that New Jersey families needed only 36,494 units of housing over the same 25-year period. Towns are hoping to use this report to water down their obligations in a series of fair housing lawsuits taking place throughout the state that provide a once in a generation opportunity for New Jersey families waiting for quality affordable homes.

"This report is the newest statement from wealthy towns that they want to exclude people who aren't wealthy.  They want to keep school kids out, too," Fair Share Housing Center Executive Director Kevin Walsh said. "This is why homes in New Jersey cost so much.  If you don't drive a BMW or Mercedes, you're not welcome in much of New Jersey.  If your house doesn't have granite countertops, you're not welcome.  We have laws to stop this sort of discrimination, and we are hoping judges will identify what the towns have submitted for what it is."

The report relies on a series of gimmicks to effectively pretend that tens of thousands of working families, seniors and those with disabilities don't exist as a way of artificially reducing housing need.

First, it argues that New Jersey municipalities shouldn't have to meet the state's housing need from 1999 through 2015 - a time when political gridlock in Trenton kept the state's housing laws from functioning properly. This flies in the face of the law and contradicts arguments that the New Jersey League of Municipalities made in an earlier court case, when attorneys for the League confirmed that municipal need for that period of time could not be made to disappear.

"This proposal is so absurd, even the state League of Municipalities rejected that approach in court years ago," Walsh said. "The report flies in the face of common sense. Anyone who has ever been to New Jersey knows that families need help now. That need didn't disappear just because of political gridlock in Trenton. Towns are talking out of both sides of their mouth, proving that some municipal officials will go to any lengths to continue excluding New Jersey families."

Econsult's latest report directly contradicts an earlier housing study the firm performed for the state Council on Affordable Housing in 2008, which found a statewide need of 116,000 homes, and found that the housing need that accumulated up to that point did not disappear.

The report also proposes a statewide need that is significantly less than what was established in previous fair housing rounds. The Council on Affordable Housing, for instance, determined that the state's need from 1987 through 1999 was approximately 85,000 homes. It beggars belief that municipalities are now arguing that New Jersey has a need less than half of that over a 25-year period.

In addition to this report, the state League of Municipalities is proposing a dramatic rewrite of New Jersey's housing policies to exclude the very poorest New Jerseyans - those making under 20 percent of the regional area median income - from housing.

This approach would also violate state law and was first proposed by Econsult in an earlier report for the League. It was rejected by the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and the Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey because it would disproportionately disenfranchise people with physical and mental disabilities - many of whom rely on government help and report very little income.

"Towns are engaged in a more sophisticated form of discrimination - in which they got experts to say black and Latino families and people with disabilities don't exist," Walsh said. "Municipal leaders want to ignore these people because they think they're just not worth caring about."

Click here to read a copy of the Econsult report.

Click here to read a copy of the Appellate Division case in which the League of Municipalities argued that housing need could not disappear.

Newark Housing Crisis Forum

Families in Newark continue to lose their homes to predatory lending and illegal foreclosures by banks. Meanwhile abandoned homes and vacant buildings created by the foreclosure crisis sit empty waiting for private equity firms from Wall Street to drop into Newark and make a quick profit off from our housing crisis.

Join NJ Communities United and our partners as we discuss Newark’s housing crisis and begin to build a movement to take back our our homes,
our community and #OURNEWARK!


This FREE community event is organized by NJ Communities United with support from Newark NAACP, ACLU New Jersey, New Jersey Community Capital, CWA Local 1037, 1199SEIU and the Latino Action Network.


**Child care will be provided for free


**Beverages & light refreshments


RSVP by contacting Roger at roger@unitednj.org or call 973-623-1828

With affordable housing out of Christie's hands, N.J. towns haveopportunity to increase diversity | Opinion

A state Supreme Court ruling in March took affordable housing funding out of the hands of the Christie administration. (Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-Ledger)

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/with_affordable_housing_out_of_christies_hands_nj.html#incart_email_mobile

By Christian Estevez

 

New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in our country. It has, however, not fully realized the strength of its diversity. It remains, after several decades of legal battles and public discourse, one of the most segregated states in the nation. It has sluggishly moved forward towards desegregating itself, and has often met roadblocks that continue—to this very day—decades of relative disadvantage for minority children in impoverished regions. 

According to an April 20 Star-Ledger article on poverty and children in New Jersey, "one-third of black children and 29 percent of Latino children and 20 percent of children of mixed race lived below the poverty line in 2013." As a state with such rich financial and educational wealth, we should not allow our children to grow up in two different New Jerseys—one for those with opportunity and another for those without it. Our country's national discussion on income inequality has awakened our desire to discuss the often-ignored plight of our working-class brothers and sisters. It should be as critical to also engage our communities in discussing the perils of geographically-based segregation on children and families.

In March, our state Supreme Court took issue with the manner in which Gov. Chris Christie refused to comply with our fair housing laws. After years of an inactive, sluggish approach at enforcing fair housing requirements, as mandated by our state constitution and state Fair Housing Act, a unanimous court ruled that municipalities must act, by this July, to move forward on creating housing units for our state's poorest families. The decision takes enforcement of fair housing laws out of the hands of Gov. Christie, who has consistently blocked that enforcement, and allows towns to fulfill their requirements accordingly. This ruling should be heralded as a win for all of our children. A town with economic and social diversity can serve as a model for what our state, and ultimately our nation, can achieve when it works together to end discriminatory practices in the most cherished part of our lives: our home.

A report released by Harvard researchers in April, and featured recently in the New York Times, concluded that living in more integrated communities has a dramatic effect on families. University researchers studied data collected over more than a decade and determined that the younger a child moves into a community of opportunity, the more his or her earnings will increase when they reach working-age adulthood.

The study looked at the nation's largest 100 counties and found that the younger a child when he or she moves to a new community, the more likely they are to earn more than those who remain in an impoverished region. One telling example looks at male children born in Baltimore, one of the nation's highest poverty cities, who remained within the city well into adulthood. Data reveals that these male adults earned 25 percent less than other boys, also born in Baltimore, who moved to a region with more social and economic opportunities. Overall, research revealed that, nation-wide, children who remained in impoverished cities through adulthood would go on to make, on average, 35 percent less than their low-income counterparts who grow up in more economically advantaged communities. The same Harvard study also revealed that two of the ten highest opportunity communities in the country are Bergen and Middlesex counties.

These statistics reveal a critical issue that New Jersey must adequately face. As a state, we must not only strive to achieve economic opportunities for families living in urban, low-income regions, but we must also work to desegregate all communities. If we are to work towards more stable jobs, and better opportunities for children across New Jersey, regardless of race or ethnicity, we must create equal opportunities in all of our municipalities, consistent with the true intent of the N.J. Supreme Court's Mount Laurel decisions and state Fair Housing Act. The recent court decision offers the hope of greater opportunity in New Jersey.

It is an opportunity we must seize now.

Christian Estevez is executive vice president of the Latino Action Network.

Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @starledger. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.

Photo Album: Latino Action Network's 2015 Legislative Conference

The Latino Action Network thanks all of the Latino activists, speakers and presenters who attended the Latino Action Network's 2015 Legislative Conference. The conference was a great success because of your participation.  We have posted photos from our 2015 Legislative Conference to our Facebook page.  Please click on the link below to view the full photo album:

LAN 2015 LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE PHOTO ALBUM

Post by Latino Action Network.

Register HERE for 2015 Annual Latino Action Network Legislative Conference

2015 Annual Latino Action Network Legislative Conference

You are cordially invited to the Latino Action Network’s Annual Legislative Conference. The conference will take place on Saturday, January 31, 2015 at the Crystal Room, Robert Treat Hotel Conference Center in Newark, New Jersey.

2015 LAN Legislative Conference Online Registration Form

The event will include a full program, with keynote presentations and dynamic workshops with panels discussing a full array of issues of great importance to New Jersey's Latino community.

Our Keynote Speakers will be:

NJ Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney and NJ Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.

Breakout panels will cover the following subjects:

• Immigration Issues
• Education: K-12 and Financial Aid for DACA
• Health Disparities and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
• Affordable Housing
• Labor Issues
• State Budget Process

We expect an audience of over 200 persons, including Latino elected officials, civic and community leaders interested in developing a shared vision for New Jersey.

This Legislative Conference is hosted by the Latino Action Network (LAN) in collaboration with The Latino Institute, Inc., a private, non-profit, charitable organization, and the Latino Coalition, a member organization of the LAN.

Please click in HERE to register for the LAN Legislative Conference or go to:

2015 LAN Legislative Conference Online Registration Form

You can also contact Carmen Torres at973-273-0273 or via email at carmentorres50@optimum.net if you have any questions about the program.

We are looking forward to presence, as we work together to benefit the Latino community.

N.J. must stop Gov. Christie's defiance of state's Fair Housing Act: Opinion

By Frank Argote-Freyre and Richard T. Smith

Star-Ledger January 13, 2015

For the past five years, the Christie Administration has, at every turn, tried to undermine New Jersey’s Fair Housing Act, which guarantees that communities cannot use unfair land-use laws to keep out lower-income families, seniors and people with special needs. It is clear Gov. Chris Christie is opposed to this law. He called the original lawsuit that led to it, brought by two local chapters of the NAACP against Mount Laurel Township, an “abomination.” The NAACP acted, at that time, to prevent the displacement of a vibrant African-American community with a long history in the region.

It is unfortunate the Governor believes this lawsuit was inappropriate. The Christie Administration has gone so far as to obstruct and refuse to enforce laws emanating from that original civil rights decision. This is a dangerous precedent. Christie appears deeply committed to undermining the principles of the law and circumventing the legal system. First, he went to the Legislature and tried to change the law, but they refused to undercut basic civil rights protections. Then he went to the courts and tried to argue he did not have to comply with the law. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in September 2013 that he did. So now the Governor is attempting to defy both the Legislature and the courts by simply not acting in accordance with existing laws.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on the issue on Jan. 6. The Court thus should move forward with the only realistic option in front of it – allow the courts to directly hear fair housing challenges, instead of having them stalled in an administrative process going nowhere.

In its September 2013 decision, the Supreme Court ordered the Christie Administration to "eliminate the limbo in which municipalities, New Jersey citizens, developers, and affordable housing interest groups have lived for too long.” It required the Christie Administration to develop new rules to implement the Fair Housing Act within five months.

Christie appears deeply committed to undermining the principles of the law and circumventing the legal system.

On the last day of that five-month period, the Christie Administration asked for an indefinite extension to develop rules. The Supreme Court granted an extension, but put a time limit on it, saying that if rules were not finalized by Nov. 17, then the Court would consider taking steps to enforce the law through the court system directly.

The Christie Administration next proposed rules that were transparently ridiculous. Towns' fair housing obligations would be based on a spreadsheet that was supposedly “lost.” Land in Monmouth County was mislabeled as being in Ocean County. The State disregarded its own official growth projections to manipulate housing requirements so they were as low as possible. The state also assumed that growth would only occur and lower-income people would only live on undeveloped farms or forests, when in recent years the majority of development in New Jersey has been redevelopment of existing land in places like Montclair, Summit and Red Bank.

After public hearings drew angry responses and the Christie Administration received more than 3,000 comments, they refused to make changes to correct these flaws. But fortunately, half the members of the Council on Affordable Housing, which had ultimate authority over the proposed rules, refused to go along with such an obvious attempt to undermine the Fair Housing Act. As such, no rules were adopted by the Nov. 17 deadline, and the State failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s deadline even after the extension.

Now, the Supreme Court is considering what to do next. There must be no more extensions or delays. Tens of thousands of people waiting for a decent place to live - a number made significantly bigger after Superstorm Sandy - have waited long enough. The Christie Administration’s process is a dead end, and the regulations that were proposed were not a good faith response. It is time for the courts to ensure that their decisions are followed, and directly enforce the state’s fair housing laws since the Christie Administration apparently refuses to do so.

Frank Argote-Freyre is president of the Latino Action Network and Richard T. Smith is president of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference.

The original article can be found at:

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/01/nj_must_stop_gov_christies_defiance_states_fair_housing_act_opinion.html