This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

COAH Resolves to Take Unspent Affordable-Housing Funds from Municipalities

Money to go to balancing the general state budget rather than building houses for low- and middle-income residents

Defying several attempts at killing it off, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing met for the first time in more than two years on Wednesday to begin the process of taking at least $142 million in funds dedicated to low- and moderate-income housing to help balance the state budget.

COAH, which has few friends in the Legislature, was reorganized out of existence in 2011 by Gov. Chris Christie.

The council voted 4-1 to ask municipalities to send proof of their plans to spend any money that had been dormant in their affordable housing trust funds for four years as of July 17, 2012 and transfer the remaining, unspent money to the council by May 22, according to the resolution.

Find out what's happening in New Milfordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The resolution also gave its acting director approval to inform municipalities how much of their unspent funds had been collected between July 18, 2008 and March 31, 2009 and to ask them to either prove they have concrete plans to spend the money or turn it over to the council.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com

Find out what's happening in New Milfordfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

NJ Spotlight is an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?