New Jersey towns obligated to provide affordable housing, court says

New Jersey towns have an obligation to provide affordable homes to make up for those that weren't built during the nearly two-decade period when the state failed to issue rules on low-income housing, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling is a blow to some towns that argued the state's mandate that municipalities provide a "fair share" of affordable homes did not apply to the period from 1999 to 2015, when the state's Council on Affordable Housing failed to issue rules on low-income housing. In it is opinion, the court called for the so-called gap-year obligations to be calculated in the towns' present need for such housing.

"Municipal responsibility for a fair share of the affordable housing need of low- and moderate-income households formed during that period was not suspended," Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote in the 6-0 opinion.

Advocates for affordable housing challenged a ruling that towns are not required to provide for a certain number of affordable homes for the period stretching from 1999 to 2015, when the state's Council on Affordable Housing couldn't agree on requirements.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-new-jersey-affordable-housing-decision-20170118-story.html