New Report: Growing Need for Affordable Homes Hampered by Severe Shortage
Underscores need for NJ Affordable Housing Trust Fund full investment

3/13/2025

Today, the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey (the Network) and the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released “The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes,” reporting that New Jersey has only 31 affordable homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households.

“NJ has just begun to make progress in addressing our affordable home crisis. There is much more work to do to HouseNJ,” said Staci Berger, president and chief executive officer of the Network. “Between draconian federal budget cuts and a proposed raid on NJ’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, there will be no resources to build the homes our communities need. We cannot stop developing affordable homes when it is clear how severe the shortage is. It is crucial we close the housing gap to make sure everyone has a safe place to call home.”

Community developers and housing advocates are calling on NJ elected officials to preserve all the money in the AHTF, which is legally dedicated to affordable home development in the state. The funding provided by the AHTF allows community developers to build new affordable homes and rehabilitate residences into new opportunities for families to live in affordable homes in healthy, safe communities. Previous state budgets raided the AHTF of nearly $1 billion over a decade for other housing programs, contributing to the 200,000 deficit of affordable homes in NJ that this report details. The FY26 budget proposal would restart this past practice, which Gov. Murphy had promised repeatedly to end.

“Our neighbors with the lowest incomes face staggering challenges with housing affordability. Three quarters of the lowest-income renters nationwide are severely cost-burdened,” said NLIHC Interim President and CEO Renee Willis. “It is a sad fact that only one in four households who qualify for housing assistance receive it. Attempts to cut deeply insufficient resources for housing assistance in the face of so much unmet need are senseless. We also need to support, not undermine, agencies like HUD to ensure that housing assistance programs are administered as efficiently as possible. There is no path to addressing the housing crisis for the lowest-income renters that doesn’t involve increasing resources for assistance and supporting the agencies that administer our housing programs.”

“People are spending more of their incomes on housing costs, which means they’re spending less on activities that help stimulate the economy,” said Berger. “Many of our residents are just a paycheck away from homelessness, which is being criminalized in places around NJ. As we enter the fourth round of Mount Laurel and while the federal government threatens the funding for our most basic human need, NJ’s leaders need to take action to address this gap and build the homes our neighbors need and deserve.”

To view the full report, visit nlihc.org/gap.

About the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ
The Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey is the statewide association of more than 275 community development corporations, individuals and other organizations that support the creation of affordable homes, economic opportunities, and strong communities. For more information on the Network, visit www.hcdnnj.org.