New Jersey
Trenton, NJ 08618
609-393-3752
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Homes for New Jersey congratulates Governor Corzine
for increasing the State Rental Assistance Program
Coalition of Developers, Housing Providers and Community Advocates
thanks the Governor for increasing funding for the program
TRENTON, N.J. -- The Homes for New Jersey campaign, a broad coalition of business, religious, housing and community organizations, thanks Governor Corzine for including an increase in funding for the State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP) in his budget address today. The Governor's inclusion of an increase in SRAP comes after thousands of postcards were delivered to his office asking for the increase last Thursday, March 16 and hundreds of people called his office yesterday. Representatives of the statewide, non-partisan effort also called for him to lift a hiring freeze at the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) in order for the state to make the program run more smoothly.
"We applaud Governor Corzine's commitment to solving the state's housing crisis. As a candidate, the Governor made housing affordability one of his top priorities and we very much appreciate his resolve on this issue," said Rev. Bruce Davidson, Campaign Co-Chair and Director of the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministries. "We thank him for increasing funding to SRAP as a way of getting on the road to housing affordability in the Garden State. He listened to the thousands of people who called and wrote his office asking for this increase."
Inaugurated last year, the SRAP received $15 million in funding through legislative action and a $10 million supplemental allocation through DCA. However, families and individuals who could benefit from the program are unable to do so, because of long waiting lists and insufficient staffing, due to a hiring freeze. The situation is further exacerbated by recent cutbacks to the federal rental assistance program (Section 8).
"Governor Corzine's budget proposal is very ambitious, and we are grateful that he is including this significant funding increase for rental assistance for low-income families. This funding is vitally important to help alleviate the upward pressure on rents that many working families are seeing, and are directly attributable to increases in property taxes, payroll taxes and fuel costs," said Jonathan Gershen, President of the New Jersey Apartment Association. "We also strongly urge the administration to take a second look at any proposed increases in residential real estate taxes and develop a comprehensive housing strategy to address the taxes and fees that exert tremendous pressure on housing providers, and lead directly to increased costs for housing in our state."
Arnold Cohen, Policy Coordinator of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey said, "Today the Governor took the first step toward addressing his goal to produce or preserve 100,000 homes over the next 10 years in environmentally appropriate places. Homes for NJ will be following up with every legislator to ensure that the increase for the state rental assistance program stays in the budget."
For more information, contact Bruce Davidson, by phone at 609-937-9845 or by email at bdavidson@njsynod.org, or Arnold Cohen, by phone at 609-393-3752 x16 or by email acohen@hcdnnj.org.
We can arrange interviews with Homes for New Jersey members
and SRAP consumers in your area.