Momentum for State to Buy Foreclosed Homes, Turn into Affordable Housing |
Similar measures failed repeatedly under Gov. Christie, but proponents optimistic his successor will look favorably on plan to remake thousands of bank-owned homes New Jersey would buy up foreclosed homes and turn them into affordable housing to address two long-standing problems in the state, under legislation that has begun moving through the Legislature. With the number of bank-owned homes in the state reaching an 11-year high of 23,322 last year, Democratic lawmakers are again pushing to put in place a program to repurpose foreclosed housing. They have made various attempts to enact a similar effort, only to have former Gov. Chris Christie veto it multiple times. This year, with a Democratic governor who campaigned in support of affordable housing, the measure has a much better chance of enactment. The Senate Economic Growth Committee on Monday voted 4-0 to release the “New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act” (S-1584), which would create a temporary entity within the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to use bonds and other funds to buy foreclosed houses from banks. The New Jersey Foreclosure Relief Corporation would then within 60 days sell or lease them to municipalities, developers or community development corporations for use as affordable housing, with the municipality in which the house is located getting the right of first refusal. “New Jersey cannot afford to wait any longer to address the foreclosure crisis plaguing our state,” said Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden/Gloucester), chair of the committee that released the bill. “We need swift and immediate action to get foreclosed properties out of the hands of banks and occupied by New Jersey residents who need housing. Abandoned, foreclosed properties hurt our communities and our local economies.” The bill faced no opposition in committee, and representatives of both builders and community developers said the measure is a long time coming in a state that ranks first in the nation for foreclosures and is the sixth most expensive to rent an apartment. A ‘stubborn problem’ for NJ Jeff Kolakowski of the New Jersey Builders Association said the legislation was modeled after the Resolution Trust Corporation that was created to handle the assets of failed savings and loan associations declared insolvent during the S&L crisis of the 1980s. Builders, community developers, bankers and affordable-housing advocates began working on the effort at the beginning of the economic collapse in 2009. While it had moved through the Legislature three times, Christie vetoed it all three times. In a July 2012 veto message, Christie explained his rejection of this and several other bills as his “rejecting the attempt to simply add millions of dollars to the budget without identifying offsetting reductions.” A fiscal analysis of a previous version of the bill stated that it would have an indeterminate state cost. The current bill foresees funding for the program coming from the state and municipal affordable-housing trust funds and from bonds issued by, and other money available to, the HMFA. Money would be kept in a new Foreclosure to Affordable Housing Transformation Fund. The measure is next slated for review by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. “This bill is good public policy,” Kolakowski said. “It’s about creating a clearinghouse to try to weed through and get rid of the backlog of foreclosures.” Berger called the creation of a corporation to deal with foreclosed properties “a creative solution” that is necessary to address several problems. ‘…crisis of affordability’ The foreclosure-relief corporation would have a seven-member board and would exist only until the end of 2022, by which time the sponsors hope the foreclosure backlog would be cleared. Kolakowski blamed the state’s judicial foreclosure process for much of the backlog, saying it takes an average of 900 days to complete the process in the state. Beginning in 2011, the state judiciary began requiring lenders to prove they are following the law, which sets specific timeframes and includes a provision for mediation, in foreclosure cases. Last year, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner created a committee to study the state’s process and recommend potential changes. Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Sussex), a member of that committee, said it has completed its work and should issue its report soon. Berger disputed the contention that the judicial foreclosure process is responsible for the large number of cases in the state, however, saying instead that the problem continues here “in large part because the previous state leadership did not do anything to address the foreclosure crisis and left it as a market problem and it is not a market problem, it needs policy and it needs funding.” Republican’s suggestion rebuffed “I cannot sit here and tell you how vociferously I disagree that bringing back RCAs will help fix this problem,” Singleton said. “It concentrates poverty in certain communities and it is against the spirit of what the Mount Laurel decision really was.” Consequences of procrastination “I have seen the ramifications of what RCAs have done to communities,” Singleton continued. “I don’t think this idea that we want to see concentrations of poverty in certain areas because other communities can pay their way out of their affordable housing obligations is something any of us should embrace.” The bill, as passed by the committee, would not allow for RCAs. It would, however, give any municipality that agrees to turn foreclosed housing into affordable housing additional credit toward fulfilling its housing obligation. Cruz-Perez said she hopes the measure will move quickly to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy, because “if we keep procrastinating on this issue it’s going to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.” |