{"id":3153,"date":"2025-02-25T22:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T22:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/?post_type=press-release&p=3153"},"modified":"2025-02-25T22:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T22:11:20","slug":"fair-share-housing-center-urges-governor-legislature-to-increase-funding-for-crucial-affordable-housing-programs","status":"publish","type":"press-release","link":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/press-release\/fair-share-housing-center-urges-governor-legislature-to-increase-funding-for-crucial-affordable-housing-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Share Housing Center Urges Governor & Legislature to Increase Funding for Crucial Affordable Housing Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his 2025 Budget Address, Governor Murphy noted the \u201cskyrocketing cost of housing\u201d as a key issue impacting families\u2019 budgets. In response, Fair Share Housing Center issued the following statement from managing director of external affairs, Al-Tariq Witcher:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abWe applaud Governor Murphy\u2019s focus on addressing New Jersey\u2019s housing crisis, on the heels of landmark legislation<\/a> <\/strong>enacted last year to streamline and strengthen enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine<\/a>.<\/strong> The shortage of affordable housing in New Jersey hurts everyone, especially low-income families and people of color. While the state\u2019s new affordable housing law is a major step forward, much more needs to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe look forward to seeing more details of the budget proposal and call on the Governor and Legislature to make necessary investments \u2014 especially increasing funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and providing funding to continue the successful first-generation homeownership program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFunding for both the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and first-generation homeownership program is essential to mitigating the harms of the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Providing strong housing funding will be particularly valuable this year, as municipalities are working to develop plans for how to meet affordable housing needs over the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNew Jersey should fully fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and not return to the days of raiding the Trust Fund for other budget programs. This is often the only source of funds for smaller developments, which do not qualify for federal funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we applaud Governor Murphy for proposing an increase on fees for million-dollar homes, that funding should be dedicated to New Jersey\u2019s growing housing crisis \u2014 and not general purposes. An additional fee on million dollar homes could generate as much <\/a>as $616 million annually<\/a> <\/strong>for affordable housing \u2014 which would start to generate the scale of resources needed to face the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also crucial for New Jersey to continue funding the successful Down Payment Assistance and First-Generation Homebuyers programs<\/strong><\/a> at a minimum of $40 million annually. These programs \u2014 which are showing more progress in shrinking the racial wealth gap than traditional first-time homeownership programs \u2014 are crucial in closing New Jersey\u2019s racial wealth gap. While we are glad to see the Governor\u2019s focus on this program, it\u2019s critical to ensure this funding is in addition to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund \u2014 and not instead of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his 2025 Budget Address, Governor Murphy noted the \u201cskyrocketing cost of housing\u201d as a key issue impacting families\u2019 budgets. In response, Fair Share Housing Center issued the following statement from managing director of external affairs, Al-Tariq Witcher: \u00abWe applaud Governor Murphy\u2019s focus on addressing New Jersey\u2019s housing crisis, on the heels of landmark legislation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3153","press-release","type-press-release","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/3153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/3153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fairsharehousing.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}