Jones to oversee city's affordable housing
State requires administrator for COAH programs
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - City Director of Economic Development Jacob L. Jones will assume responsibility for the city's affordable housing program under new regulations set by the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

The City Council introduced a measure at the Aug. 28 municipal meeting to create the new position of Municipal Housing Liaison Officer to administer an affordable housing program in Long Branch, according to ordinance 34-07.

The city position was added after COAH determined that any town that wanted to participate in affordable housing programs needed an administrator, Jones said Tuesday.

"In the past, I have already been fulfilling this role," said Jones. "I have been doing it since 1994.

"COAH wanted to make the position more official. They must have seen the need for it," he said.

The ordinance was introduced by council by a 4-0 vote, at the Aug. 28 meeting and the public hearing is scheduled for the Sept. 11 meeting at 8 p.m.

According to the ordinance, as the city's municipal housing liaison, Jones will be responsible for overseeing and administering the affordable housing program for Long Branch.

Jones will serve as the city's primary point of contact for all inquiries from the state, affordable housing providers, administrative agents and interested households, according to the ordinance.

His duties will also include compiling annual reports as required by COAH, coordinating meetings with affordable housing providers and attending education opportunities on affordable housing, according to the ordinance.

"[Long Branch] has been running a housing program in the city since the early 1990s," Jones said. "We have been making sure that the low- and moderate-income families that need the benefits get the benefits. We have been doing this."

Before voting to introduce the ordinance, Councilman Brian Unger asked if Jones would receive additional salary for adding another title.

City Business Administrator Howard H. Woolley said he would not.

Before he qualified to be appointed by the city's governing body as liaison for the affordable housing program, Jones said he was required to take a course and pass a test by COAH.

"The test by COAH was on terminology and housing [laws] that are critical to know for Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs)," Jones said.

"Any city that handles or receives RCAs funds must now have a liaison."

An RCA is an agreement between two towns in which one town pays another town to assume a portion of its affordable housing obligation.

Under the RCA, a sending community may transfer up to half of its 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.

"COAH now made it that if you want to be able to do RCAs as a municipality, somebody has to be the liaison," Jones said.

In past years, Jones said he has been running the city's housing program, which included filing the proper applications to COAH, screening low-income families, ensuring that all contractors involved with the affordable housing program are registered with the state and having a capable staff of code enforcement personnel and inspectors.

"We have proved all this in the past," Jones said. "We have been running a housing program since the early 1990s. COAH has made the position a little more official."