Sale of fair housing obligations challenged Group says transfer of fair share housing unfair BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer The Long Branch Housing Authority (LBHA) is ringing in the new year with the opening of its new public housing complex. The 40-unit Seaview Manor complex at the corner of Seaview and Ellis avenues will be ready for occupancy before the end of the month, LBHA Executive Director Tyrone Garrett said earlier this month. Some of the funding for the $10.5 million project comes from a $3 million Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) with Colts Neck Township that is currently being challenged in a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit law firm. Of the $3 million, $975,000 was used to complete 39 units at Seaview Manor, according to Garrett. The Fair Share Housing Center, Cherry Hill, has appealed the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) approval of the RCA, which allows Colts Neck to pay Long Branch to construct affordable units in that city, rather than provide the affordable housing opportunities in Colts Neck. Under COAH regulations, an RCA allows a sending community, such as Colts Neck, to transfer up to half of its required share of affordable housing units to a receiving community such as Long Branch, as long as it is within the same housing region. Each community’s fair share obligation of affordable housing is established by COAH. “We support there being affordable housing in Long Branch,” Adam Gordon, a staff attorney with The Fair Share Housing Center, said. “It is just not right for a person to get affordable housing in Long Branch because it was denied in Colts Neck,” he said. The law center filed the suit on July 31 in the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court, Gordon said. An additional claim in the suit is that Long Branch is receiving credit for the same unit of housing twice, according to Gordon. Gordon explained that part of the money from the RCA is funding units at Seaview Manor. “The [LBHA] also received funding from low-income tax credits for units at Seaview Manor,” Gordon said. “So the state is counting the units with tax credits as meeting the need of its affordable housing obligations. “And Colts Neck is counting the units as meeting its obligation, but the units were already counted,” Gordon said. “Both obligations are coming out of the same unit,” Gordon continued, adding, “We have seen a lot of these RCA agreements that violate state law. “Counting it twice is an egregious problem with RCAs,” he said.” “The housing authority has not been party to any correspondence in terms of the lawsuit,” Garrett said, adding, “This is the first I have heard of this. “The best people to make that determination would be COAH,” he said. “I believe COAH will sort it out. “Every dollar we have received is being used to provide affordable housing,” Garrett added. At a Nov. 28 council meeting, Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider weighed in on RCAs. “Why did we enter an RCA?” Schneider said. “I thought it was a great deal for Long Branch. “[The RCA is] for $3 million to build affordable housing and rehabilitate housing. “They are claiming that Colts Neck should be responsible for building affordable housing in Colts Neck. I don’t disagree with that. The law permits them to buy their way out,” Schneider continued. “When Colts Neck approached us, we saw it as an opportunity to better our community and we took it. It’s being spent on affordable housing.” At the Dec. 14 monthly COAH meeting, representatives from the New Jersey Regional Coalition (NJRC) protested the transfer of affordable housing obligations from suburban to urban communities, according to an NJRC press release. The NJRC is a faith-based statewide coalition representing over 100 church, religious and civic groups across the state. NJRC Chairman Paul Bellan-Boyer said in the release that RCAs need to be reformed. “The current system just does not work, and as many legislators have pointed out, this provision is amoral and should be abolished, Bellan-Boyer said. “Affordable housing can no longer be segregated in a few towns in New Jersey,” he said. “Our citizens deserve the opportunity to live in any community they choose.” Seaview Manor was additionally funded with $8 million in tax credits and loans from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, a $220,000 Federal Home Loan from the Bank of New York, and funding from the LBHA. The new Seaview Manor complex, built on a 3-acre site, consists of 40 affordable townhouse-style rental apartments with one, two, three and four bedrooms, Garrett said. Seaview Manor’s original 46 public housing units, which were constructed in 1952, were demolished in 2004, after it was found that a former manufactured gas plant on Long Branch Avenue had contaminated the area. The LBHA broke ground on the project in November 2005. “Housing Authority units have the life expectancy of 40 to 60 years,” Garrett said at the meeting. “We want to give residents a better quality of life, more amenities, size, central air.” The residents at Seaview Manor were relocated, Garrett said, adding that the displaced residents have the right of first refusal for the new units. Garrett said at the affordable housing meeting that only 12 residents have applied to return to the complex and of the 12, only five of the applications were completed. “We are in the process of getting the information completed on some of the applications,” Garrett said last week. “So it looks like we have eight applications complete now.” According to Garrett, the decrease in the total number of units at the new complex is due to current square-footage requirements that call for newer units to be constructed bigger. Seaview Manor is the first phase in an estimated $137 million LBHA seven-phase redevelopment project, according to Garrett, who said the result will be 244 new rental housing units and 31 home ownership units and a new community center. The LBHA is planning to start phase two of its project this month, with the demolition of the 82-unit Grant Court complex on the corner of Liberty Street and Central Avenue. “It is not as easy as everyone believes it to be,” Garrett said. “It is a bumpy and complicated process. “Completing the first phase gives us great optimism for the future, with six more phases to come,” he said.