Sample Letter #2 To the Editor

To the Editor:

Homes for New Jersey is a group of concerned neighbors throughout the state working to encourage a comprehensive housing strategy to help everyone find an affordable home.

Our research shows that families in New Jersey must earn, on average, more than $43,000 a year to pay for a modest two-bedroom apartment or a "starter home," which in most areas now costs more than $200,000. A shocking one-fourth of New Jersey homes are now selling for over $500,000.

Everyone deserves a decent place to live, to raise a family, build a life and enjoy a future. But more and more New Jerseyans will be shut out unless we do something now.

Together, we can make New Jersey a place where everyone has a fair shot at the American Dream.

Homes for New Jersey has a plan to help create Homes We Can Afford.

Our state elected officials and government leaders need to:

Create and preserve 100,000 more homes that New Jerseyans can afford by

offering incentives for higher-density, mixed-income homes in our cities and towns,
creating new ways to help people stay in their homes and
replacing the homes of lower-income residents who are displaced by redevelopment

Address the housing needs of very low-income New Jerseyans by

making sure current housing plans provide opportunities for very low-income families and
maintaining or increasing the current level of funding for the state's rental assistance program.

Join the Homes for New Jersey grassroots campaign today. Contact your state legislator and insist that our state do more to create decent housing we can afford.

Find out more about Homes for New Jersey at www.homesfornj.com.

Help your neighbors in the Homes for New Jersey campaign as they work to make New Jersey a more affordable place in which to live.

Sincerely,