Newark Needs ‘Fair, Affordable Housing’: Financial Justice Summit

NEWARK, NJ — Housing advocates, policy experts and elected officials recently gathered for a “financial justice summit” in Newark, discussing an old-but-still-frustrating need in the city: affordable housing.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was among those on hand for New Jersey Citizen Action’s (NJCA) 14th annual event, which was held to brainstorm solutions to the state’s “most pressing socio-economic crises” – including “fair and affordable housing” and debt traps.

During a fireside chat with Tenisha Malcolm, director of the Urban Mayors Policy Center, Baraka pointed to a recent amendment to the Newark Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance that will permit the city to exclusively market new affordable units to local residents for the first three months. Read More: Newark Residents Get 'First Dibs' On Affordable Housing Under IZO

Baraka also said there’s a pressing need for “community reinvestment” in neighborhoods of color, which have been victimized by redlining practices for decades. Read More: Bank 'Redlined' NJ Home Buyers In Newark Metro Area, Feds Allege

According to the mayor, people have been “purposefully robbed of their ability to own, insure and maintain homes” throughout the nation, including the Brick City.

Baraka said that his administration is pushing back against a homebuying landscape in which nearly half of Newark real estate sales are made to “institutional” buyers such as corporations, many of whom remain anonymous. Read More: Corporations Own Most Of Newark's Homes. New Laws Are Pushing Back

The lack of housing is falling hardest on those who earn the least, advocates say.

““The National Low Income Housing Coalition classifies 26% of renter households in New Jersey as ‘extremely low-income,’” said Leila Amirhamzeh, NJCA Director of Community Reinvestment. “New Jersey is short 224,531 rental homes that are affordable and available for extremely low-income renters.”

But it’s not just an issue for low-income residents, advocates add; when housing starts to disappear, it impacts middle-income Newarkers, too.

• See Related: Essex County Home Prices Remain Unaffordable, Report Says

DEBT TRAPS

The summit also tackled the “increasing crisis” posed to New Jersey families by debt traps, according to the NJCA.

Following a keynote address in which Frederick Wherry, a professor of sociology at Princeton University and director of the Dignity and Debt Network addressed the social impact of a debt-based economy, participants heard from Seth Frotman, general counsel for the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

According to Frotman, the CFPB has committed to rulemaking that will remove medical bills from credit reports. These bills provide little predictive value in credit decisions, yet tens of millions of American households are dealing with medical debt on their credit reports, Frotman said.

The discussion takes place at a time when the CFPB’s very existence in under threat, with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a case on October 3 that could defund it and other federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve, the NJCA said.

“The CFPB announcement to take up medical debt credit reporting for rulemaking is a reminder of its commitment to protecting American consumers from financial harm caused by unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices in the marketplace,” said Beverly Brown Ruggia, financial justice program director for NJCA.

“Since opening its doors, the CFPB has returned close to $17 billion to consumers harmed by bad actors in the banking and finance industries and despite relentless attempts to gut the Bureau, like the meritless case [recently put] before the court, it looks like it will continue to forge full steam ahead,” Brown Ruggia said.

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