Sample Letter #3 To the Editor

To the Editor:

I am one of the unfortunate people in New Jersey who cannot find an affordable, decent place to call home. As the cost of buying a house or renting an apartment in New Jersey skyrockets, more and more of us are finding it impossible to find a home we can afford.

I am lucky to have a job, but it hardly pays enough for me to make ends meet. And even with a half-decent salary, I find myself shut out of the housing market. According to the Homes for New Jersey campaign, families 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.

Middle- and lower-income workers and their families MUST have access to homes they can afford! New Jersey needs a comprehensive housing strategy to help everyone reach that goal.

Our state elected officials and government leaders need to:

1. 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.

2. 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.

This is not too much to ask New Jersey's leaders to do. But nothing will happen if we don't urge them to act.

Contact your state legislator today. Insist that our state do more to create decent housing we can afford. You can find out more by contacting the Homes for New Jersey campaign at: www.homesfornj.com.

Please help me help my family stay in New Jersey. We love our state, but it's getting harder and harder to afford a home here.

Sincerely,