Affordable Housing Debate Continues to Rage in Montclair
Last night’s community panel discussion on affordable housing eventually turned into a debate on the merits of building affordable housing on the vacant land known as the Wildwood properties.
The meeting, sponsored by the Fourth Ward Collaborative and hosted by Fourth Ward Councilor Renée Baskerville, was part on an ongoing effort to address the increasing challenge that low-to-moderate income residents face in finding housing that does not cost more than 30 percent of their annual income. Panelists also discussed the disproportionate allotment of such housing in the Fourth Ward, which includes 525 of the 651 affordable units in Montclair — or 84% of the total. The First Ward has only two such affordable housing units.
Beverly Riddick, director of Homes Of Montclair Ecumenical Corporation (HOMECorp) and one of the panelists, cited the sense of civic pride in the township’s efforts to provide homes for a racially and economically diverse population that gives the community its strength. But she also noted that housing costs have risen and become more prohibitive. The median price for a house in Montclair was $475,000 in December 2011, a 35 percent increase over a decade earlier.
“That’s a good thing, as long as we’re content to remain here,” said Riddick, whose organization has built and restored 34 housing units and 65 apartment units since its founding in 1988. ”But where it becomes a little trickier is when you have folks who want to move into the community. ”
The panelists generally agreed on the need to provide such housing opportunities for middle-class workers such as teachers, police officers, firefighters and hospital employees. David Troutt, a Rutgers law professor specializing in community economic development who recently moved to Montclair, added that it was an investment in a community’s economic diversity. But Troutt added that affordability had to be distributed evenly to avoid socioeconomic segregation. He sought to allay fears that such housing would affect property values.
“Affordable housing does not diminish property values,” he said. ”In many instances, depending on the context and the type of housing, there’s in fact an improvement in them.”
Resident Howard Gardner of Grove Street did not mince words on the segregation issue, noting the saying it was “disingenuous” to suggest that there was equality in the distribution of affordable housing throughout the township with so much of it concentrated in the mostly black Fourth Ward.
Montclair Housing Commission chair Wendy McNeil concurred by noting that many Montclair residents have mischaracterized the concept of affordable housing with comments on Baristanet and in e-mails expressing oppostion to affordable housing in the First Ward. “I’ve taken to seeing it as the ‘Newt Gingrich-Rick Santorum syndrome,’” she said. “For example, in one case, it said, ‘Obviously, jobs in Willowbrook [Mall] and Newark are much more accessible via buses on Bloomfield Avenue, which happens to run through the Fourth Ward, and how would a low-income family get to work from the First Ward?’ Well, that’s a big assumption that someone is making in terms of the nature of affordability.” Gardner added that people need to be more educated on the issue to understand that affordable housing doesn’t necessarily mean public housing projects of the sort associated with Newark.
The meeting had already become focused on the Wildwood properties, with Councilor Rich Murnick spearheading the charge. With many of his constituents at the meeting insisting that the land remain undeveloped, Murnick re-iterated his reluctance to sell at a loss and cited the many residents who preferred to keep the Wildwood properties as open space, with the suggestion that existing housing could be utilized for affordabilty.
“I am in favor of affordable housing in the First Ward,” Murnick said.
Ilmar Vanderer of Edgemont Road urged that the housing needs of older people be taken seriously. He noted that many older residents, some of them still actively working, can’t afford their property taxes and are struggling to say in Montclair after having lived there all their lives. Tax subsidies, Vanderer said, are “not keeping pace with the increasing cost of property taxes and the general cost of living.”
Planning Director Janice Talley noted that Montclair has always sought to increase the availability of affordable housing, from passing ordinances allowing mid-rise and garden apartments to inclusionary zoning today. With four percent of Montclair’s apartments and detached houses considered affordable, Talley wants to get it up to ten percent.
“We’re not there yet,” she said.
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