Governor: Here’s How States Can Make Housing Affordable | Opinion

From coast to coast, the United States is grappling with an unprecedented housing affordability crisis. Today, millions of families are teetering on the edge, wondering how they will keep a roof over their heads. An entire generation of young people worry they may never be able to afford a home. And as housing and rental prices rise faster than incomes, young and elderly Americans alike have been pushed to the brink of homelessness.

But in the face of this crisis, New Jersey is pioneering a solution that could bring down housing costs across the country: requiring municipalities to allow their fair share of affordable housing.

Our state is not immune to soaring housing prices and limited housing stock. In fact, increasingly, families across the country are choosing to make the move to New Jersey, which has pushed demand for affordable housing even higher. But we refused to abandon our goal of putting the dream of homeownership and affordable housing back within reach of all working New Jerseyans.

That is why this year, in partnership with General Assembly speaker Craig Coughlin and state senate president Nicholas Scutari, I signed New Jersey’s most significant affordable housing bill in 40 years into law. It will massively streamline the process for affordable housing development across our state, while more efficiently allocating funding to municipalities that are building housing close to jobs, transit hubs, and Main Street businesses.

This bold legislation will begin to turn the tide and ensure every New Jersey family has a safe, dignified place to call home—where parents can raise their children comfortably, and senior citizens can live out their golden years. And it offers a blueprint to do the same around the country.

Lawmakers at all levels of American government have made some progress. President Joe Biden, recognizing that housing is a national issue, proposed two new federal tax credits earlier this year to increase homeownership. Kamala Harris‘ ambitious housing proposal would provide down-payment aid to first-time homebuyers and promote the construction of three million new housing units. Meanwhile, state and local leaders across the country have enacted a variety of measures to protect low-income residents and to incentivize new affordable housing developments.

But to overcome the housing crisis, our thinking needs to be as big as the problems we want to solve. And New Jersey’s new landmark housing legislation is not only thinking big—it is putting big ideas into action by establishing the strongest enforcement of anti-exclusionary zoning in the nation.

Exclusionary zoning—which is often used to enforce racial and economic segregation in the housing market—has been illegal in New Jersey for nearly 50 years. The New Jersey Supreme Court held in a landmark ruling that towns cannot stand in the way of opportunities for low- and moderate-income housing. This principle, known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine, is studied to this day by law students and lawyers all across the nation as an example of an actionable solution to discriminatory housing policies nationwide.

The Mount Laurel Doctrine has historically been upheld primarily through judicial intervention. And these efforts have led to significant successes. Since 2015, our state has built more than 70,000 multi-family homes, including 20,000 with long-term affordability guarantees.

But given our state’s rapidly growing population, we needed to do more and make building more affordable housing easier. The executive and legislative branches needed to do their part to put together a framework for building affordable housing that is both practical and lawful, instead of leaving the issue solely to the courts.

That’s why we passed this unprecedented legislation, which will allow municipal affordable housing obligations to be determined quickly, fairly, and without the delay of litigation. And that means we will be able to build even more safe, accessible, affordable housing.

Other states are seeking to emulate New Jersey’s success. California, Florida, and Massachusetts have all recently adopted policies that streamline the process of building affordable housing. Connecticut also took an initial step toward a “fair share” housing framework last year, similar to the Mount Laurel Doctrine. New Jersey’s experiences demonstrate that these efforts would be strengthened by clear requirements and strong enforcement mechanisms.

New Jersey’s framework—ensuring communities provide their fair share of affordable housing—offers a pragmatic, proven model for other states to build upon.

We need to act boldly and ambitiously now, because as income inequality and the cost of housing continue to soar across America, the number of people experiencing housing instability nationwide will only keep getting bigger.

New Jersey has the blueprint; our fellow states just need to pull out their policy toolboxes and get to building a system that works for everyone.

Phil Murphy is the governor of New Jersey.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.