From today's Philadelphia Inquirer. All praise to Fair Share Housing Center!
Gov. Christie's 90-day suspension of New Jersey's affordable-housing regulations has been lifted temporarily under a stay granted by the Appellate Division of Superior Court.
Judge Stephen Skillman yesterday granted a motion by the Fair Share Housing Center to stay the section of a Feb. 9 executive order that banned the Council on Affordable Housing from enforcing its rules for 90 days while a five-member task force develops recommendations on state policies for providing affordable housing.
The court will make a final decision after hearing oral arguments March 16.
Within hours of Christie's order, the center filed an appeal claiming a violation of separation of powers that went far beyond the governor's limited role in COAH, which was created by the Fair Housing Act in 1985 to enforce Supreme Court rulings that towns have a constitutional obligation to provide low- and moderate-income housing.
Legal papers filed by the center called Christie's move "a sweeping assertion of executive power" that "sets a dangerous precedent for the entire operation of state government."
"I think this is a recognition that what Gov. Christie has been trying to do in governing by executive order is out of the norm with past governors, both Democrats and Republicans, in New Jersey and is not consistent with our constitution and our laws," said Adam Gordon, an attorney for the Cherry Hill-based Fair Share Housing Center.
The governor's office did not return a message seeking comment yesterday.
Sharing the view of many local officials, Christie's executive order called state affordable-housing procedures "excessively complex and unworkable, resulting in delays, inefficiencies, litigation, and unreasonable costs to municipalities and the private sector without appreciable progress being made for our citizens."
COAH calculates the "fair share" of housing each town must provide. Municipalities that file plans with the council for how they will meet those requirements are protected from lawsuits by developers to force higher-density building.
The stay does not affect the task force, created under the executive order to assess the effects of New Jersey's affordable-housing regulations and their degree of success in meeting obligations under the Supreme Court rulings of 1975 and 1983, known as the Mount Laurel decisions.
Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, expressed surprise at the stay.
His organization is awaiting a decision on a legal challenge it filed on behalf of many towns to the latest round of COAH rules in 2008, and Dressel said the league's attorneys were not told they could have filed a response to the Fair Share Housing Center filing.
"We think it was very reasonable for a newly elected governor to be able to do a review of what has transpired in the legislative area, to take a fresh look at the regulations and to . . . take 90 days, as he referred to it, a time-out, and come up with a plan of action on how to address the problems with COAH," Dressel said.
The court denied other motions by the Fair Share Housing Center, including a request for an appointment of a special master to oversee COAH's operations and "ensure that there are not attempts to surreptitiously accomplish what the executive order aims illegally to do."
COAH, for its part, shares Christie's view: the council's board voted, 5-2, in support of Christie's executive order on Tuesday.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
NY Times Editorial on NY Housing Discrimination Case
Westchester’s Word
NY Times - 2/17/10
Six months ago, New York’s Westchester County agreed to spend slightly more than $50 million in the next seven years to build at least 750 units of affordable housing — more than 600 of them in towns and villages where the black population is 3 percent or less and the Hispanic population is less than 7 percent.
It signed the deal to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of violating the False Claims Act — that is, of taking tens of millions of federal dollars for affordable housing and other projects while falsely certifying that it was doing all that it must to promote integrated housing. It signed only after a federal judge declared that Westchester had ”utterly failed” to meet its obligations.
Last week, the monitor overseeing the settlement rejected the county’s affordable-housing plan, saying it was deficient on details, accountability and enforcement. Instead of specifying what the county would do to meet certain desegregation bench marks, Westchester had simply restated the bench marks. The plan didn’t specify where and how the money would be spent. It had no “concrete time frame” for finding and buying properties to develop and was “unnecessarily vague on the whole.”
Worst of all, the plan did not explain how or even whether it would overcome not-in-my-backyard resistance and compel cooperation by municipalities that have used exclusionary zoning laws and other devices for years to keep out lower-income people and minorities. The monitor also said the plan needed “real enforcement mechanisms” — “a clear strategy for how the county will employ carrots and sticks to encourage compliance by municipal governments.” We await the county’s response, which should be to fix the plan and then seriously and swiftly put it into action.
When one thinks about segregation, Westchester isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But the poor and minority residents desperately looking for an affordable place to live know the bitter truth. It is past time for Westchester’s leaders to do what they’ve promised.
NY Times - 2/17/10
Six months ago, New York’s Westchester County agreed to spend slightly more than $50 million in the next seven years to build at least 750 units of affordable housing — more than 600 of them in towns and villages where the black population is 3 percent or less and the Hispanic population is less than 7 percent.
It signed the deal to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of violating the False Claims Act — that is, of taking tens of millions of federal dollars for affordable housing and other projects while falsely certifying that it was doing all that it must to promote integrated housing. It signed only after a federal judge declared that Westchester had ”utterly failed” to meet its obligations.
Last week, the monitor overseeing the settlement rejected the county’s affordable-housing plan, saying it was deficient on details, accountability and enforcement. Instead of specifying what the county would do to meet certain desegregation bench marks, Westchester had simply restated the bench marks. The plan didn’t specify where and how the money would be spent. It had no “concrete time frame” for finding and buying properties to develop and was “unnecessarily vague on the whole.”
Worst of all, the plan did not explain how or even whether it would overcome not-in-my-backyard resistance and compel cooperation by municipalities that have used exclusionary zoning laws and other devices for years to keep out lower-income people and minorities. The monitor also said the plan needed “real enforcement mechanisms” — “a clear strategy for how the county will employ carrots and sticks to encourage compliance by municipal governments.” We await the county’s response, which should be to fix the plan and then seriously and swiftly put it into action.
When one thinks about segregation, Westchester isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But the poor and minority residents desperately looking for an affordable place to live know the bitter truth. It is past time for Westchester’s leaders to do what they’ve promised.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
UN Releases Report on Housing Rights Violations in the U.S.
The United Nations has released the final report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing’s U.S. mission , making both broad and specific findings and recommendations about housing rights violations in the U.S.
The UN Special Rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, visited six cities in the U.S. from October 23-November 8, 2009 in her mission, co-coordinated by National Law Center on Homeless Rights and Poverty, the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, and local partners including
New York, NY – Rob Robinson, Picture the Homeless
Wilkes Barre, PA – Frank Sindaco, Northeast Pennsylvania Organizing Center
Chicago, IL - JR Fleming, Coalition to Protect Public Housing
New Orleans, LA – Sam Jackson, Mayday New Orleans
Pine Ridge, SD – Bill Means, Oglala Tribal Community
Los Angeles, CA – Becky Dennison, Los Angeles Community Action Network
Washington, DC – Debra Frazier, Family and Friends of Arthur Capers and Carrollsburg and Eric Sheptock
After an extremely participatory visit , many of the concerns homeless and low-income communities across the country expressed to her are included in the report.
The Rapporteur’s report recommends, among other things:
Increasing resources for public and affordable housing;
The Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act should be extended beyond its 2012 sunset;
Vacant properties should be made available to housing organizations for the provision of affordable housing;
Constructive alternatives to the criminalization of homelessness should be developed, and where adequate shelter is not available, homeless persons should be allowed to shelter themselves in public areas;
The HUD definition of homelessness should be expanded to include those living doubled up with others due to economic hardship.
Congress should pass H.Res. 582 and devote increased resources to the Family Unification Voucher Program.
The Rapporteur will present her report to the UN Human Rights Council on March 5th in Geneva, Switzerland.
Next steps for advocates should include 1) publicizing the report, 2) demanding and action plan from legislators and HUD for implementing the report’s recommendations, and 3) using the report recommendations and findings in local advocacy.
The UN Special Rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, visited six cities in the U.S. from October 23-November 8, 2009 in her mission, co-coordinated by National Law Center on Homeless Rights and Poverty, the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, and local partners including
New York, NY – Rob Robinson, Picture the Homeless
Wilkes Barre, PA – Frank Sindaco, Northeast Pennsylvania Organizing Center
Chicago, IL - JR Fleming, Coalition to Protect Public Housing
New Orleans, LA – Sam Jackson, Mayday New Orleans
Pine Ridge, SD – Bill Means, Oglala Tribal Community
Los Angeles, CA – Becky Dennison, Los Angeles Community Action Network
Washington, DC – Debra Frazier, Family and Friends of Arthur Capers and Carrollsburg and Eric Sheptock
After an extremely participatory visit
The Rapporteur’s report recommends, among other things:
Increasing resources for public and affordable housing;
The Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act should be extended beyond its 2012 sunset;
Vacant properties should be made available to housing organizations for the provision of affordable housing;
Constructive alternatives to the criminalization of homelessness should be developed, and where adequate shelter is not available, homeless persons should be allowed to shelter themselves in public areas;
The HUD definition of homelessness should be expanded to include those living doubled up with others due to economic hardship.
Congress should pass H.Res. 582 and devote increased resources to the Family Unification Voucher Program.
The Rapporteur will present her report to the UN Human Rights Council on March 5th in Geneva, Switzerland.
Next steps for advocates should include 1) publicizing the report, 2) demanding and action plan from legislators and HUD for implementing the report’s recommendations, and 3) using the report recommendations and findings in local advocacy.
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