HouseNJ Federal Priorities

The HouseNJ campaign is built on the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s effort, HoUSed, which calls on Congress to:

• Expand rental assistance to additional extremely low-income households, including those experiencing and at risk of homelessness.
• Increase the National Housing Trust Fund to build affordable, safe homes for households with the greatest needs.
• Repair and preserve public housing, which is home to 2.5 million residents across the country. Public housing is critical to ensuring people with the greatest needs have a safe, decent, affordable, and accessible place to call home, and the preservation of this community asset must be included in any strategy to ensure housing is a human right.

HouseNJ State Priorities

• Protect and Expand the NJ Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Funding for this item must remain in place and grow. The AHTF should continue to serve NJ’s lower-wealth residents and not be diverted for any other purposes.
• Increase the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit. The Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) is one of the most successful and responsible tax credit programs in NJ.
• Strengthen Rental Assistance and End Homelessness. This includes expanding project-based vouchers for the State Rental Assistance Program, addressing chronic homelessness and extending emergency rental assistance.
• Remove Barriers to Housing Access & Security. Policymakers can make it easier for NJ residents to find and keep stable, affordable homes by adopting innovative changes. These include: removing credit scores for voucher holders, allowing families and communities to purchase foreclosed properties to preserve wealth, adopting a first-generation homeownership program, and more.
• Restore Vacant and Abandoned Properties to Productive Uses. Many local governments are confronted with problem properties without realizing the many tools available to address them. These tools are intended to facilitate the efforts of municipalities and of other appropriate entities to obtain control over abandoned properties and return them to productive use. The Network will work with legislative leaders to strengthen these tools and make them automatic for towns whose vacant properties inventory meets certain thresholds.