BRICK – The township is conveying a vacant parcel of property that will be developed into an eight-unit apartment building for affordable housing for veterans, which was recommended by the Council’s Land Use Committee.
Homes Now, Inc. will pay $1 for the irregularly-shaped half acre lot – located at 1707 Route 88 West – so they can take title as needed for HMFA (New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency) funding to build the units and manage the site, said township Business Administrator Joanne Bergin.
HMFA has different affordable housing programs for homebuyers and renters, and uses proceeds from bond sales and federal tax credits to fund affordable rental housing.
Homes Now Inc., established in 1997, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit community development corporation organized and incorporated for the purpose of providing affordable housing in the area.
The project will be funded by Community Development Block Grants, the township’s Affordable Housing Trust and additional grant funds that Homes Now will be seeking, according to a summary sheet prepared by Bergin.
Homes Now not only develops affordable housing but they are also the administrative agent for affordable housing in Brick Township.
In 2018, the Fair Share Housing and Affordable Housing Plan included the creation of an Affordable Veterans Housing project as one of the proposed developments to create inclusionary affordable housing in Brick.
Homes Now will manage the rental property, proposed as one- and two-bedroom apartments for income-qualified veterans.
The property will remain subject to a deed restriction limiting the use of the units for low- or moderate-income individuals as affordable housing for 50 years.
Homes Now has built more than 200 deed-restricted affordable housing units in town, including 20 single family homes, three group homes for developmentally disabled residents, a 17-apartment building for women and children survivors of domestic violence, and 184-unit low-income senior apartment complex that includes eight set aside for developmentally disabled adults.
This is Round 3 for affordable housing obligations, and Brick – along with 300-plus other NJ municipalities – is under the jurisdiction of a settlement agreement with the Fair Share Housing Center and has until 2025 to provide units in compliance with that agreement, says township planner (and Affordable Housing Administrator) Tara Paxton.
According to the NJ Department of Community Affairs, affordable housing obligations are based on population changes and growth over time in a region.
Round 3 obligations go through 2025 at which point another round of obligations will begin.
“Part of our Round 3 plan included a Veterans Housing Project, for which we’ve been working on for years to try to get accomplished, and we are excited it is moving forward,” Paxton wrote in an email.
“We were hoping to build a larger veterans project, but this will be smaller,” she wrote, “ so we will need to amend our plan before the end of the 2025 round.”
The township administration is happy to be making progress with the veterans project, she added.
New Jersey municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide for their fair share of regional, affordable housing needs to comply with the state’s Supreme Court “Mount Laurel” rulings, that have defined the responsibility communities have to provide a certain amount of affordable housing to people with low or moderate incomes.
