Transfer of affordable housing called into question

Bringing the subject of affordable housing commitments into forums for a discussion of techniques in consort with "back door" politics is long overdue. Nurtured through Regional Contribution Agreements (RCA), its questionable agendas have created a need for RCAs to be reviewed through corrective legislation.

Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. is to be congratulated for now proposing A-3857, a measure unmasking the hidden agendas now structured within (RCAs). They serve to embolden "compensation for bolstering exclusionary zoning."

The ability to transfer affordable housing obligations from one township to another provides municipalities an "exit strategy" for not meeting their own fair share of affordable housing commitments. It has been rightly referred to as being "repulsive."

The alleged premise of RCAs describes its goals as being a cooperative effort to afford certain financially strapped townships the ability to meet their affordable housing obligations. However, in reality, the process has long been politicized by some townships to control their agendas for reducing the entrance of low-cost housing into their respective sacred domains.

In the guise of providing smaller townships a rescue lifeline for meeting their affordable housing commitments, it also affords the transfer of affordable housing credits to maintain the so-called "character" of certain affluent communities.

The sending towns pay the receiving towns $35,000 for each unit and to complete the cycle, in turn an affordable housing credit for the sending town is established. One could say that's certainly a bargain price to maintain one's "character."

Herbert Resnick

Marlboro