Gov. Christie: We’ve Been Working Hard To Reduce Homelessness And We’re Making Incredible Progress

Transcript:

Governor Christie: I’m here today because Woodbridge is an example of how when people work together across party lines great things can be accomplished. And so I want to thank the Mayor for his willingness to have done that, right from, right from two days after the election forward to today. And he talked about this 150 unit public housing complex that we’re helping to preserve and rehabilitate with new construction of the units in five buildings. Forty-six of the units will cost tenants 30 percent of their incomes, and five are set aside for homelessness individuals and families so that they can end that cycle of homelessness and begin to give their families some stability that comes from a good place to live and great place to sleep every night. It’s projects like these that continue our commitment to reduce homelessness in New Jersey, an issue that we’ve been working relentlessly in a more strategic and coordinated way to help people get back on their feet, have a roof over their heads and their children’s heads, each and every night. And we’ve made some incredible progress in this regard. Over the past five years, homelessness has decreased in New Jersey by 29 percent and that’s according to recent counts in the 2017 report. Since ’13 data shows homelessness has dropped by 49 percent in this state. And rates of homelessness among families with children, just in the last year, has declined by 11 percent. This is because of the efforts that we’re putting in along with municipalities to have more affordable housing and give people an opportunity, through a number of different programs, to give them a hand up and an opportunity to reclaim their lives. So I’m happy to have Chuck Richmond, our DCA Commissioner and Tony Marchetta, our HMFA Executive Director, to deliver some more news to  by announcing our Administration’s commitment to the new construction and rehabilitation of more than 4,450 rental units across New Jersey that will generate more than a billion dollars in development investment and create 9,500 construction related jobs. This commitment will include $40 million in federal low-income housing tax credits. These kind of competitive awards represent the single largest announcement of awards in New Jersey since the inception of the program and will fund 2,175 units in 14 counties across the state. Additionally, $250 million in tax exempt bonds is being awarded to finance construction costs of 2,275 units. This mortgage finance will be leveraged with the final $60 million in the fund for restoration of multi-family housing, which we received under our Superstorm Sandy grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that’ll construct another 304 units in the nine most impacted counties by Sandy. This is all in addition to the $150 million in awards that we announced previously this year to construct or rehabilitate over 1,860 units across the state. These projects have total development costs which exceed $425 million.