Elizabeth is nestled on the shore of Newark Bay in Union County, a dense, urban enclave in the heart of the Meadowlands estuary and wetlands. Our neighbors include: the Newark Liberty International Airport, where planes fly by my apartment multiple times a day creating noise nuisance.
Housing and Equity
Heat, Air Quality, and Hope: Community Research and Resilience in Elizabeth, NJ
Tuesday, July 30th, 2024New Jersey Needs More Housing, and Municipalities are on the Front Lines
Tuesday, July 30th, 2024Without a safe, stable place to call home, how can people achieve any personal goals?” asked Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez. Her opening remarks kicked off the session, “Housing: What’s Next in New Jersey?” at the 2024 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference.
New Jersey’s Housing Landscape: The Mount Laurel Doctrine and the Search for the Missing Middle
Tuesday, July 30th, 2024The rising costs of housing in New Jersey are affecting everyone, especially individuals and households at the lower end of the income spectrum. New Jersey’s unique Mount Laurel doctrine is meant to address the need for housing for lower-income households, but it also indirectly has a major effect on the supply of market-rate multi-family units in the process.
New Report Digs Deeper into Diversity in Morris and Monmouth Counties
Monday, January 29th, 2024New Jersey is an expensive state, with among the highest housing costs in the country. It is also one of the most segregated states in the nation by both income and race, despite being one of the most racially diverse states overall. A new report from New Jersey Future explores the relationship between the enforcement of housing requirements, housing affordability, and racial and economic diversity, using a comparison between two demographically similar suburban counties—Morris and Monmouth—that followed different trajectories in complying with New Jersey’s affordable housing obligations.
The Future of Housing in New Jersey
Thursday, November 30th, 2023Housing shapes communities while communities shape the quality of life and access to opportunities for each of us. Local officials are on the front lines of housing development, shaping what kind of housing gets built, where it can be constructed, and the local roads and sidewalks residents use to get from their homes to everywhere else.
Promoting Integration at the Local Level
Thursday, July 20th, 2023While New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the nation at the macro level, at the local level it is also one of the most segregated. The state has grown more demographically diverse over the last two decades, but most of its individual towns and neighborhoods are either predominantly white or predominantly non-white, with few places occupying the “diverse” range in between.
The Changing Faces of New Jersey Developers
Tuesday, July 18th, 2023“Nationally, Black and Hispanic people are acutely underrepresented in real estate development…Black and Hispanic real estate developers represent less than 1% of their industry across the nation, even though Blacks make up 14% and Hispanics make up 18% of the total population. New Jersey’s affordable housing development space shows similar disparities.
Examining the Influence of 50 years of Hip Hop on Planning and Redevelopment
Tuesday, July 18th, 2023On the occasion of hip hop’s 50th birthday, media companies, nonprofits, and the general public are charting the massive influence of this musical and cultural phenomenon on all aspects of modern life. This was no different at the 2023 Planning and Redevelopment Conference, co-hosted by New Jersey Future and the American Planning Association NJ Chapter, where two sessions addressed hip hop and its intersection with planning and architecture.
Common Ground Emerges on Affordable Housing Solutions
Monday, July 17th, 2023“New Jersey has a storied history of working to address affordable housing. For over five decades, municipalities and developers have collaborated and/or clashed in state agencies and in the courts,“ noted Tom D’Allessio, Vice President of Policy, American Planning Association, NJ Chapter, as he opened one of the two lively, productive sessions on affordable housing at the 2023 Planning and Redevelopment Conference.
