Moving Affordable Housing Forward in 2023 January 18th, 2023   By Esmé Devenney  It’s the start of a new year, and two months have passed since applications opened for the Affordable Housing Production Fund (“AHPF”). The AHPF is a new $305 million dollar funding stream created in the FY23 state budget intended to accelerate affordable housing production in the state. The fund is administered by the NJ Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency and supported with American Rescue Plan dollars. The fund is anticipated to support the development of more than 3,300 affordable homes. But even with this historic line item

Paths to Eviction Reform in New Jersey December 7th, 2022   By Chris Romero  As housing prices continue to rise, the threat of eviction looms for thousands of New Jersey residents. As of February 2022, 393,000 households in New Jersey were considered delinquent on their rent, with a disproportionate number of households identifying as Hispanic or African American. Households with children and households with a combined income of $50,000 or less are also disproportionately impacted by eviction, putting increased pressure and strain on New Jersey’s most vulnerable tenants. Despite eviction moratoriums during the COVID-19 pandemic, rising housing costs and insufficient

The Truth About COAH: A Disingenuous Return to a Broken System Will Leave NJ Residents in a Housing Crisis November 4th, 2022   By Esmé Devenney  In September, a handful of towns sued Governor Murphy and then testified at an Assembly Housing Committee hearing calling for the return of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Those who want to return to the broken COAH system are making that demand for two reasons: they seek to avoid their constitutional affordable housing obligations and uphold residential segregation. New Jersey has one of the most robust civil rights frameworks in the country—the Mount

A History of the Mount Laurel Doctrine  October 28th, 2022   By Martina Manicastri In 1975, Black and Latino community organizers in South Jersey won a landmark civil rights case against Mount Laurel Township that to this day, still constitutes one of the most progressive housing laws in the nation. As the rise of suburbia prompted a national trend of white flight and gentrification, white people left the cities of Camden and Philadelphia in favor of more suburban towns, like Mount Laurel Township. In Mount Laurel, residents of the Township’s historic Black neighborhood suddenly found themselves priced out of generational

Overburdened Communities Bear the Brunt of Environmental Injustice October 27th, 2022   By Ashley J. Lee Jackson, Mississippi is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last city to suffer the consequences of dangerous and unsafe water. However, it has reminded those who have forgotten about the lack of access to clean drinking water in an alarming number of Black and Latinx communities in our nation.  Black residents make up 82.5% of Jackson’s estimated population of 149,761 people, with 24.5% of residents living in poverty. Most of the city’s residents were provided a boil water notice beginning in

Invocation for Philadelphia City Council – June 9th, 2022 June 15th, 2022   By Rev. Eric Dobson In the spirit of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Compassion, let us pray. The conscious of Life, gods of many names, be in our hearts and minds as we come together today to pray for our Nation, State and City. We come today as people whose faith has been shaken by the calamities in Buffalo, Uvalde and Philadelphia. Although we mourn for the families that must forever live with failures of our government to act, yet, we remain hopeful that these same lawmakers will