Aberdeen to Fund Up to 28 Home Repair Projects for Township's Needy

Aberdeen Township has posted an announcement that it will be funding home repairs for up to 28 qualified local residents under Mount Laurel requirements. "Gross income limits range from $49,789 for a household with one person to a maximum of $93,887 for a household with eight family members. To qualify, homeowners must also be up-to-date with mortgage payments, water/sewer, and real estate taxes."

Eligible residents should fill out the application and mail it to the listed address at the Monmouth County Hall of Records Annex. Monmouth County's Community Development Program manages Aberdeen's Mount Laurel Indigenous Need Housing Rehabilitation Program as part of a service agreement with the Board of Chosen Freeholders. Aberdeen pays the county $5,100 per unit for the privilege.

Local social service groups should do all they can to aid potential applicants in this process to see that everyone who deserves this funding receives it. I understand that Mission Matawan will be discussing this issue at its next meeting. Hopefully other groups will do likewise.

A little background: Once per decade, Mount Laurel looks at the need for new affordable housing construction and rehabilitation of existing housing, the latter being the indigenous (local) need for housing rehabilitation mentioned in the program above. Apparently the 2010 Federal Census has determined that we have 28 qualified households in Aberdeen Township, thus the request for applications. The Fair Housing Act does not permit the transfer of indigenous need to another municipality under what is known as a regional cooperation agreement.

The New Jersey Public Advocate's Office, in its Affordable Housing in New Jersey: Reviving the Promise (2007), says, "Every municipality must provide its fair share of the region’s need for affordable housing. This includes the present housing needs of the low- and moderate-income people already living in the region and the prospective needs of those who may later seek housing there. The present need includes each municipality’s obligation to provide affordable housing for the resident poor. According to Mount Laurel II, pp 214-15, “[E]ach municipality must provide a realistic opportunity for decent housing for its indigenous poor except where they represent a disproportionately large segment of the population as compared with the rest of the region.”

Page 6, Para 13 of the Kinsey Certification (July 2003) to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey discusses the impact of delayed implementation of third round (1999-2010) Mount Laurel remedies on indigenous need.