Bill > A2039

This bill expands financing opportunities for low and moderate income housing in New Jersey. The key provisions are: 1. It directs the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) to establish incentives and priorities to promote participation by minority and women-owned businesses in providing low and moderate-income housing options. This includes encouraging the development of multi-family rental housing and homeownership opportunities for low and moderate income families. 2. It requires the HMFA to accept third party verification of compliance, eliminate duplicative reviews, and streamline the approval process for affordable housing. The HMFA cannot establish any program, rule, or regulation that unnecessarily obstructs or discourages participation by minority or women-owned businesses. 3. It allows the HMFA to provide financing for the preservation, as well as the construction, improvement or rehabilitation, of affordable housing projects. It also gives priority consideration to projects that are part of an urban redevelopment program. 4. It requires the HMFA to provide a proportionate share of any savings from refinancing or discharging bonds to the projects that were financed by those bonds. It also allows project sponsors to repay HMFA mortgages without penalty after 10 years. 5. It reduces the maximum payment in lieu of taxes that a municipality can require from an affordable housing project, from 20% to 10% of the project's net annual revenue.

Housing and Urban Affairs