COAH Suspension Won't Affect Current Projects

Affordable housing has proved itself to be a contentious issue in the state of New Jersey, and has especially proven so in Summit, where council chambers were continuously packed with concerned citizens during meetings for the proposed Habitat for Humanity project on Morris Avenue.

Blair Bravo, the executive director of Morris Habitat, pressed that her company was brought in to help Summit fulfill its constitutional obligation to build affordable housing, following rigid and sometimes burdensome guidelines set forth by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

Residents' concerns seemed to mimic those statewide. COAH was putting too much pressure on municipalities to add affordable housing in developments, causing problems for developers, many said.

Gov. Chris Christie signed Executive Order No. 12 on Feb. 9 to suspend COAH's activity for 90 days. Christie recognizes that changes need to be made to provide affordable housing in a way that doesn't hurt municipalities. A Housing Opportunity Task Force has since been assembled to assess the current climate and to make recommendations on how to move forward.

"What people don't understand is that the amount of contribution depends on development," said Michael Vernotico, a councilman in Summit.

He said he thinks that instead of encouraging development in the city, COAH is causing builders to turn away and causing market prices to rise, therefore hurting the economy in the current recession.

"The taxpayers are carrying the burden," he said. "COAH has become a penalty."

While some, like Vernotico, would prefer to have COAH abolished, others recognize that some oversight is needed to make affordable housing a priority.

While no current projects should be affected by the suspension, Bravo admits that without any government agency monitoring the situation, affordable housing for professionals and families could disappear.

"It would reduce my building effort," she said, "Some programs may combine or go away."

Council President Dave Bomgaars thinks that COAH's expectations are too high for many towns in New Jersey, including Summit.

"There's a real commitment in Summit to provide affordable housing," he said. "The number to provide was just unrealistic."

He believes that the amount of housing should be a joint decision between individual communities and religious leaders.

"An example is Habitat … it wasn't received well by everyone, but it's an example of city government and interfaith clergy working together to provide affordable housing," Bomgaars said.

While the outcome of the 90-day suspension is hard to predict, the councilmen and Bravo agree that they expect to see changes to the current program.

"I'm hoping what will happen is some common sense will prevail," Vernotico said. "That COAH will be abolished."

Bravo and Bomgaars think that the governor's task force will create new policies that will guide the state's municipalities, but not overwhelm them.

"Hopefully they'll do good work," Bomgaars said. "It's not a long period of time."

"I feel hopeful that they will come up with better policy," Bravo said. "I think that municipalities will be more in control, with an agency that will monitor them."

It seems that municipalities state wide are happy to see COAH gone for now, and are anxious to see what changes are to come for policy on affordable housing.