New Jersey
What you need to know to apply for affordable housing in New Jersey
3-minute read
NJ affordable housing history: Video
Take a look at North Jersey’s history with affordable housing over the last 50 years.
- In Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Sussex counties, a family of four would earn up to $96,329 to qualify for moderate-income housing and $60,206 to qualify for low-income housing.
- New Jersey changed the law to requre a central location for all affordable housing to be advertised.
More than 4,000 people recently applied for a Cherry Hill development with 28 affordable units.
In East Hanover in Morris County last year, there were about 9,500 applicants for 45 units.
A building that opened last year in Teaneck with 40 affordable units for people age 62 and older had more than 700 applicants.
“It is very competitive,” said Joshua Bauers, the director of exclusionary zoning litigation for the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center. “It is just emblematic of the housing shortage we are all existing in.”
The search for affordable housing can be complicated and arduous, and the odds of getting awarded an apartment are long. But advocates say reforms to the system in recent years have made the process more accessible, and they hope other planned changes will make it easier for applicants.
To qualify for affordable housing in New Jersey, applicants must earn at or below 80% of the median family income for the county where the housing is, under the state’s Uniform Housing Affordability Controls.
Units are available to people at various income levels, for those earning 30%, 50% or 80% of the median income.
In Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Sussex counties, a family of four would earn up to $96,329 to qualify for moderate-income housing, $60,206 to qualify for low-income housing and $36,124 to qualify for very low-income housing.
Story continues below photo gallery.
In December, because of the state’s new affordable housing law, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, or HMFA, adopted interim amendments to the Uniform Housing Affordability Controls.
Under the law, all units are required to be “affirmatively marketed.”
But under the old rules, which hadn’t been updated in 20 years, the specified marketing still included television and radio with no mention of the internet or social media.
“That’s one of the big updates you’ll see,” Bauers said. “That was probably one of the most outdated aspects of the old rules.”
Other recent changes have also eased the process for potential applicants.
Soon after the start of the pandemic, the state changed the law to require a central location for all affordable housing to be advertised. Now all units are listed on the New Jersey Housing Resource Center’s website at nj.gov/njhrc, which previously was used to advertise only affordable housing units financed by the HMFA.
“Everything funnels to there — the idea is it should be really easy to figure out what housing is available,” Bauers said. “Before, you could go on five different websites operated by administrative agents to do the applications and figure out what’s available. Now it’s all in one place.”
That new requirement is included in the updated rules, he said.
Under the Fair Chance in Housing Act, which went into effect in 2022, a landlord cannot consider an applicant’s criminal history on an initial housing application, in an interview or in other ways before making an offer.
In the years since Mount Laurel, a cottage industry of businesses that act as administrative agents for affordable housing has sprung up. Those companies, including Piazza & Associates in Princeton, Community Grants, Planning and Housing and the nonprofit Housing Partnership of Morris County, all have slightly different procedures for applying.
People in need of affordable housing will fill out an application or pre-application, and then the administrative agent runs a lottery to establish the order of who gets the housing.
After the lottery, people start to get matched up with units. Sometimes landlords or property owners have their own application process tenants must go through.
The Fair Share Housing Center is hoping to make the application as uniform as possible, so people won’t have to fill out so many forms. It is also pushing for a window of eligibility in which people won’t have to repeatedly supply documents proving they are eligible for affordable housing or government benefits, like food stamps.
Currently, applicants must fill out separate applications for each unit, and repeatedly provide documentation that they meet the income requirements. Because each application carries a fee, the process of applying can become unaffordable for those seeking housing, Bauers said.
“The housing shortage is a tremendous part of the problem — one we are trying to solve through building more affordable housing,” he said. “But we are hopeful these updates will alleviate some of these access problems.”
Another change affordable housing advocates are pushing for is clear requirements for unit sizes, access to amenities and other features. They are seeking regulations requiring developers to build one-, two- and three-bedroom affordable units, with specific minimum unit and bedroom sizes, so housing is available and suitable for families.
“People looking for affordable units sometimes end up on yearslong wait lists before they finally get access to housing,” Bauers said. “We are really happy with what the HMFA is doing with the new rules. This will make it easier for people who need housing to access it.”
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka believes it is time for him to make the move from the mayor’s office to the governor’s office.
“Being in charge of Newark for over a decade, you can see a lot of things we’ve been able to accomplish, but not for as many people as we wanted to accomplish it for,” Baraka said. “I think in the governor’s office, you can do a lot more for people across the state of New Jersey who witnessed in our party the same issues that we have from housing to violence to Medicaid to Medicare to health care.”
In his 11 years as mayor of Newark, the city has seen a tremendous growth spurt – the city skyline is etched with new businesses that moved in and new partnerships have brought more jobs.
“We’ve reduced crime, we’ve changed the lead service lines, we went up twice in our Moody’s financial rating in the city, we’ve turned people’s Section 8 vouchers into mortgages,” Baraka said.
Under his leadership, Newark Public Schools are back under local control and flourishing.
As governor, he wants to control costs across the board to make living more affordable.
“We have too many school districts, we have more school districts than cities, and we have too many cities, more cities than California, which is eight times our size,” Baraka said. “And so it’s incredibly inefficient and we’re paying two or three times for similar services or same services that we could combine and reduce our costs.”
He has multi-pronged plan to address housing, which includes a capital fund for affordable housing, subsidized affordable home ownership, tax relief for home owners, a cap on rent increases, and regulating investment firms that impact housing and raising filing fees for evictions.
On higher education, Baraka says he will push for free community college and partner universities with private sector leaders to recruit and retain local talent.
Some critics called his recent arrest outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center a political stunt.
“I was down there every day, if I wanted to do a political stunt, I could have done it at 7:00 in the morning, I’m there every day, 7 o’clock, when I was there earlier that day with the ICE agents out there in the front,” he said.
He was asked if he would try to have it shut down as governor.
“Well, I think what we should try to do as governor is to make sure that we don’t have private prisons in New Jersey,” Baraka said.
There are six Democrats and five Republicans in the running for New Jersey governor. Eyewitness News will profile a candidate for governor each day this week.
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New Jersey
Haddon Township Pride Parade’s 5th year in New Jersey comes alive with a message: “Choose joy”
Hundreds lined Haddon Avenue in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Thursday night for the annual Pride Parade, with all the colors and feelings of pride on full display.
“It’s awesome, it’s beautiful, it’s what Pride is,” said Lauren Smith from Voorhees.
The parade featured bands, floats, entertainment and participants of the two and four-legged variety.
“This is our second year coming. We came last year and had an absolute blast, so we’re back again,” said Gracie Broglin from West Deptford.
Randy Teague is the mayor of Haddon Township.
“It means that everyone is welcome, we’re an inclusionary community and we accept everybody,” says Teague.
For many, this night is a chance to be accepted.
“It just makes us feel very welcome and feel comfortable and safe together,” said Dejenee Mathis from Marlton.
Emily Munsick came out with her wife and two little girls.
“It’s really nice that this is here, they look around and they see, ‘Oh, two moms, OK, I have the same thing,’ so it’s important to have that community,” Munsick said.
This is the fifth year for the Haddon Township Pride Parade. Last year, more than 3,000 people marched in the parade and organizers said this year was even bigger.
Brendan Slavin is on the Board for the Haddon Township Equity Initiative, which sponsors the parade.
“This year we actually are expecting about 4,000 (people) and we’re about 30% larger on the participant count, businesses, local businesses that came in,” Slavin said.
This year’s theme is “Choose Joy,” a message Slavin and many others hope will march on during this month of Pride and beyond.
“Joy is something that isn’t given to you. So it’s something the world can’t take from you either. So in the world, you can choose to be angry, you can choose to be upset with everything, you can choose all this political climate stuff, just choose joy,” Slavin said. “That’s something you can protect, something that spreads easily, too. So just choose joy.”
The National Weather Service forecast calls for a hot and increasingly humid day Thursday, with high temperatures climbing into the mid- to upper 80s across most of New Jersey.
Some northern areas could experience their first 90-degree day of the year, though increasing high cloud cover may limit peak temperatures.
The Jersey Shore will remain slightly cooler, with temperatures mainly in the 70s.
Some parts of New Jersey could have the first 90-degree day of the year, followed by the threat of thunderstorms and heavy downpours on Friday and Saturday.AccuWeather.com
The risk of thunderstorms increases Friday as a cold front approaches. Forecasters say there’s a potential for heavy downpours and isolated storms that could bring strong wind gusts.
The weekend will bring unsettled weather as the cold front moves through the state on Saturday.
Temperatures will be cooler, with highs ranging from the upper 60s to upper 70s.
Thunderstorms are likely Saturday, with a potential for brief heavy rainfall and isolated strong storm cells.
The National Weather Service notes some northern New Jersey zones are highlighted for enhanced rainfall potential.
Looking ahead, early next week appears active, with continued chances of showers and thunderstorms.
Sunday may bring more rain in some spots, with temperatures remaining near seasonal averages.
Uncertainty increases for the latter part of next week, with another potential storm system approaching by Wednesday.
Current weather radar
Generative AI was used to produce an initial draft of this story, which was reviewed and edited by NJ Advance Media staff.
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