During Phil Murphy’s State of the State address on Jan. 14, the governor gave a shout-out to several lawmakers and their proposals for the upcoming legislative year, including South Jersey’s Sen. Troy Singleton.
“This year, I am calling on the Legislature to reform our state’s zoning and permitting laws, with a number of proposals led by Senator Troy Singleton and his colleagues, so we can make it easier to build new housing in the communities where it’s needed most,” said Murphy.
Singleton, a Democrat representing Burlington County, proposes a trio of bills to complement the landmark affordable housing legislation signed into law last spring.
Three proposals with Singleton as the prime sponsor would:
- Change municipal Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinances to allow ADUs in single-family and duplex neighborhoods. The bill, S-345, was filed last year and introduced in 2022.
- Allow by-right conversion of stranded, vacant, or economically depressed commercial properties, such as shopping malls or strip centers – into housing and/or mixed-use developments. The proposal, S-1408, is in the Senate, and A-2757 is in the Assembly.
- Reduce minimum parking requirements around transit and in denser areas. The bill, S-2974 and A-4043, will be reviewed.
Singleton said he’s been working hard behind the scenes for the last four to six years to ensure affordable housing becomes a top priority in New Jersey.
“By cutting red tape and easing outdated restrictions, we can build potentially thousands of new, affordable housing units over the next decade,” Singleton said in a phone call with The Sun Papers.
Murphy, in his State of the State Address last week, alluded to the vast need.
“Today, there are far too many Americans living one missed paycheck away from economic catastrophe. New Jersey is no exception. …The reality is that everyday life is too difficult for our nation’s working families. While the stock market is soaring, the cost of living — from groceries to housing — has skyrocketed,” said Murphy.
Nearly a year ago, on March 20, 2024, the governor signed legislation to reform the state’s fair housing obligations under the historic New Jersey Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel Doctrine and the state’s Fair Housing Act.
The Mount Laurel Doctrine, named after the Burlington County Township, has gone through several iterations through court rulings since it was first established in 1975. It requires towns to provide their fair share of a region’s affordable housing.
The new law signed last spring by Gov. Murphy streamlines the process of determining and enforcing these obligations.
Singleton, who championed the landmark legislation, said his bills can enhance the process.
“When combined with the specific, tangible reforms the Governor outlined today – expansion of accessory dwelling units, conversion of vacant and commercial property into housing, and creation of more transit-oriented development – we will continue to meet our housing goals while also reigniting our local economies and revitalizing our communities,” Singleton said in a statement.
But the South Jersey lawmaker said fixing the problem in one of the most expensive states in the nation would be challenging.
“I think New Jersey’s reliance on Home Rule – which has, frankly, no statutory grounding in New Jersey law – has been the biggest impediment for us to thoroughly address this issue,” Singleton said in the same interview.
“It is a supply and demand issue. We’re seeing a deepening supply and demand problem in this state when it comes to housing. So when you don’t have as much inventory you create the affordability challenges that come with that.”
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, citing 2022 state-by-state data, in New Jersey:
- There is a shortage of approximately 215,000 affordable housing units for extremely low-income renters.
- About 25 percent of renter households in New Jersey are described as “extremely low income” (ELI) with incomes at or below the poverty level, or 30% of their area median income.
- Many ELI households are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing and are more likely than other renters to sacrifice other necessities like healthy food and healthcare to pay the rent.
Singleton, the Senate Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee said the key is “to create more workforce housing.”
”By creating workforce housing, it affects the entire spectrum of housing in our state,” said Singleton.
“It makes it so that low- and moderate income families have the opportunity to live in safe and affordable housing.”
Singleton pointed to what’s going on at Moorestown Mall on 400 NJ-Route 38 in Moorestown as a prime example of the possibilities under his S-1408 bill of repurposing shopping malls and older strip malls.
“Moorestown Mall is a prime example,” Singleton said.
“Now that the idea around work – of how we work and where we work has pivoted, there’s a lot of Class A and Class B commercial real estate that in some states and some communities, we’re really seeing entrepreneurial, enterprising developers transforming those buildings into housing and mixed-use (projects).”
