Affordable Housing

A three-judge panel has slowed Gov. Christie's effort to make quick changes to the state's affordable housing requirements. The state appeals panel issued a stay Tuesday on his plan for new affordable housing procedures and scheduled a hearing for February. Until then, the state was ordered to follow the affordable housing procedures that were in place before the state Council on Affordable Housing was abolished last month. The ruling is the latest in a 40-year debate. Courts have ruled repeatedly that New Jersey municipalities are obligated to provide housing that low- and moderate-income residents can afford.

A Bucks County Planning Commission official told Doylestown Township supervisors Tuesday that housing in the median price level is well beyond the reach of families with median incomes. "The affordable-housing crisis is much more than a matter of social concern affecting the less fortunate," said Kirk Emerson, director of countywide planning. "It has become a mainstream problem with far-reaching economic implications. " Emerson spoke to the supervisors and residents as part of a pilot program in which township officials offered to participate in a study with the county Planning Commission.

The state Council on Affordable Housing is set to take a long-awaited vote today on Moorestown's amended plan to provide housing units for low- and moderate-income individuals. The plan, debated for almost two years, provides for rehabilitating some housing in Moorestown and paying two other towns - Mount Holly and Beverly - to supply housing there under what are known as regional contribution agreements. The council, which enforces fair-housing mandates, is to vote separately today on an arrangement in which Moorestown would pay Mount Holly $4.1 million to take 204 units of its 691-unit obligation over three years.

Local nonprofit developers of affordable housing received almost $10 million in grants yesterday from the Federal Home Loan Banks of Pittsburgh and San Francisco, the largest awards to the region since the banks began funding low-income housing in 1990. The money is to go into 18 projects - 15 in Philadelphia and three in surrounding Pennsylvania counties - and produce 861 units of affordable housing. At a City Hall news conference, Mayor Nutter, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.)

Cherry Hill had its affordable-housing funds frozen Monday and was ordered to have a plan for spending the money approved by Superior Court. The order by Judge Robert G. Millenky followed allegations by the Fair Share Housing Center, which has been in litigation with Cherry Hill since 2001, that the township broke state rules about spending development fees intended for affordable-housing projects. "Fair Share has uncertainty" about use of the funds, "and the court finds reasonably so," Millenky said.

After Jean Siciliano lost her job as a purchasing agent during a corporate downsizing in 2009, she feared she could no longer afford to raise her teenage son in Evesham. She stayed in the suburb because a nonprofit agency approved her for a spacious apartment in a new housing development on Sharp Road for $658 in monthly rent. That development was built under a 1985 law - enacted in response to state Supreme Court rulings - requiring towns to provide low- and moderate-income housing.

Eladia Fonseca came to Philadelphia as a 9-year-old burn victim, her mother seeking better care for her daughter than what was available after their home in Puerto Rico destroyed by fire. Fonseca endured years of living in inadequate housing here, some of which had no heat, was infested with mice and bugs and was surrounded by drug activity. Now 51, Fonseca proudly showed off her cozy, newly renovated three-bedroom home, one of 58 affordable-housing units scattered around her Spring Garden neighborhood that are part of a $19.6 million project that was unveiled yesterday.

Mayor Gerald Luongo said last night that he has devised a plan to deal with the need to build affordable housing. His announcement came as more than 200 angry residents packed a Planning Board meeting to protest a proposed development that would include 48 units of affordable housing near Pitman-Downer and Fish Pond Roads. Protesting affordable housing has become a monthly ritual this year. This time, homeowners who live near the proposed development had their chance to tell the Planning Board why it should reject the Barnside Development Corp.

The Salem County town of Carneys Point needed to meet a state requirement to provide affordable housing, and developer John Bibeau had a plan: build an 88-unit apartment complex for disabled veterans and people with special needs and low and moderate incomes. He found an old factory building to serve as the site. He sat down with municipal officials, who had solicited him to do the project initially and to negotiate financing. In all, he said, he poured close to $750,000 into buying the property and paying fees for consultants, architects, and engineers.

The Bristol Township Council has reversed itself and will help the county get additional funding for a new affordable-housing program. The new program, titled Home Investment in Affordable Housing and referred to as HOME, is a federally funded plan that would help qualified people become first-time homeowners, help renters, assist nonprofit groups in rehabilitating homes for the needy, or even provide grants for new affordable housing. A meeting was held Thursday night at the behest of the county so that the Bristol Township Council could reconsider its position.

Chinatown has little room to grow. The Center City neighborhood is boxed in by the Gallery to the south and the Convention Center to the west. Most construction is happening to the north of Vine Street, and most of that is for high-end housing. But in a narrow elbow of vacant land, near the delivery entrance to the Gallery on Arch Street near Eighth Street, two nonprofit developers are moving ahead with plans for a nine-story, 94-unit apartment house. It's a unique collaboration between the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp.

TRENTON - An appeals panel on Friday blocked the Christie administration's plan to take control of up to $200 million in funds held by municipalities for the construction of housing for the poor and disabled. The three-judge panel of the Appellate Division of Superior Court said towns must be given an opportunity to appeal, case by case, the administration's efforts to take the money, and it criticized the administration for not having given them the chance. The state Council on Affordable Housing has responsibility for overseeing the program, and on May 1 it wrote to municipal governments advising them of its intent to take control of unspent housing funds.

NEWARK, N.J. - With the New Jersey budget deadline of July 1 looming, a state appellate panel heard arguments Wednesday in a long-running legal battle between housing advocates and the Christie administration over the administration's plan to seize up to $200 million held by municipal governments for building subsidized housing for the poor and disabled. A 2008 law signed by Gov. Jon S. Corzine gives the administration the right to seize funds that were collected from developers for building low-cost housing but had not been committed.

THE GREAT RECESSION has done many bad things to many people. But perhaps one aftermath that has been beneficial is the increase in multigenerational households. Their numbers expanded from 2007 to 2009 - the recession years - to a record 51.4 million people, according to the Pew Research Center. "Starting right after World War II, the extended-family household fell out of favor with the American public," according to a Pew report. "Since bottoming out around 1980, however, the multigenerational family household has mounted a comeback.

A years-long effort to preserve the rolling hills, meadows, and grassland of Maple Ridge - once destined for a housing development - is nearing fruition. Maple Ridge, the Gloucester County open space that spans Deptford and Mantua Townships and abuts Wenonah, closed as a golf course in 2006. Residents and environmental groups have been pushing to acquire the land since. A development firm in Washington snatched up the 112-acre property but has been open to selling due to the housing slump.

TRENTON - Assembly Democrats and a cabinet official bickered Thursday over whether the Republican governor's policies have produced real property tax relief and whether the administration has given sufficient guidance to towns on spending for affordable housing projects. Richard Constable, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, told the Assembly Budget Committee that Gov. Christie's reforms, including changes to pensions and benefits and an annual 2 percent cap, are helping to slow property-tax increases.

Defying attempts to kill it off, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing met for the first time in more than two years Wednesday and began the process of taking at least $142 million in funds dedicated to low- and moderate-income housing to help balance the state budget. COAH has few friends in Trenton, and was reorganized out of existence in 2011 by Gov. Christie. But last August, a court breathed new life into it. On Wednesday, the council voted, 4-1, to ask municipalities to send proof of their plans to spend any money that was dormant in their affordable housing trust funds for four years as of July 17, 2012, and transfer uncommitted amounts to the council by May 22. The move drew protests from housing advocates.

Mount Laurel Township, long synonymous with landmark court cases mandating affordable housing, can also lay claim as a town that pushed back against billboards. On Monday, the national beautification group Scenic America will honor the town's leaders and residents for successfully defending the right of municipalities to restrict billboards within their borders. The national organization's president, Mary Tracy, is to present its Stafford Award to the township at Monday's council meeting.

It's easy to imagine the sprawling 19th-century brick mill on South Kensington's Howard Street as just another high-end apartment complex for twentysomething professionals, the newest outpost on Philadelphia's ever-advancing frontier of gentrification. Situated a few blocks north of Fishtown's hipster bars and BYOB food shrines, Oxford Mills preserves the kind of authentic architectural details that make young, and not-so-young, renters swoon: high ceilings, huge windows, thick wooden beams.

A mixed-use affordable-housing development is moving forward in Norristown despite opposition from some residents. The plan calls for 96 one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as 5,000 square feet of retail space, at DeKalb and Airy Streets. Sixty units would be reserved for low- and moderate-income residents. The site is now a parking lot owned by Montgomery County. The county deemed it underused, and in February agreed to transfer ownership through a profit-sharing redevelopment deal.