The Hudson County Board of Commissioners voted 8-0(1) to adopt an ordinance authorizing a $140 million and interest of county bonds to support construction of affordable housing at Canal Crossing in Jersey City.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
The County-Guaranteed Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds will be issued by the Hudson County Improvement Authority (HCIA) as part of the county’s plan to construct additional affordable housing units countywide.
The commissioners held a public hearing and adopted the ordinance on Thursday, shortly after Hudson County Executive Craig Guy addressed the board on the matter.
“Since taking office, I’ve demonstrated my commitment to addressing the affordable housing crisis in Hudson County,” he stated.
“I established the county’s first-ever Affordable Housing Task Force. Our administration has put forth a bold, ambitious Hudson County Affordable Housing Initiative, and we are moving forward every day to create hundred of affordable housing units on county land.”
Guy’s remarks positioned affordable housing as key policy issue his administration has sought to address, from establishing the Hudson County Affordable Housing Task Force, to the county’s Affordable Housing Initiative, and even constructing affordable housing on four county-owned parking lots in Journal Square.
This includes a potential 456 units in a 24-story building planned for the county parking lot in Bergen Square, 493 units in an at-least 31-story tower planned for the county lot at Five Corners, and more at the Hilltop lot- which currently is zoned to allow up to five stories, as well as at the county parking lot at County Plaza.
According to Guy, he had requested that the HCIA use the tools it has available to assist in the financing of a housing project at 900 Garfield Ave. in the Bergen-Lafayette section of Jersey City.
Guy also said the project will be constructed by Boraie Development within the Canal Crossing Redevelopment Area, consisting of about 510 units with a 20 percent affordable housing set-aside for low-income individuals.
The Jersey City City Council gave the initial okay last month for a 30-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement to support the redevelopment at Canal Crossing, in part aiming to fulfill one of Mayor James Solomon’s campaign pledges for $1,000 rents.
However, the proposal has taken a backseat as the city tries to fine tune an $886.5 million budget with a 15.5 percent tax increase.
There has also been a great deal of litigation over the chromium pollution at the former industrial site, which brought some controversy that extended into concerns by the council before introducing the ordinance sanctioning the PILOT.
“That’s 102 affordable apartments we will be helpful in creating on vacant, formerly contaminated land. Those units will be rented to families and individuals whose household income is not more than fifty percent of the area medium income,” expressed Guy.
The developer will also utilize union labor for the construction of the project as agreed by the Hudson County Building and Trades Council, and will be required to build out open space improvements including part of the Morris Canal Greenway.
They also, together with the Elizabeth Development Company as co-applicant, applied to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) for an award of ASPIRE tax credits.
The NJEDA declared it “a transformative project” and the ASPIRE tax credits were awarded back in January, and the HCIA applied for and received $140 million in federal tax credit allocation from the state treasury, according to Guy.
“That allocation will facilitate the issuance of tax exempt bonds backed by the ASPIRE tax credits. Although the financing requires a county guarantee, no taxpayer dollars will be used to pay back those bonds except in the extremely unlikely event of a default,” he added.
The county executive continued that this is one of the final steps to completing financing and putting shovels in the ground.
“Together, with this ordinance, we are once again turning our aspirations into action, Together, we are delivering on our promise. Finally, let me say, I’m very proud of providing the financial support necessary to build the affordable housing in Hudson County,” Guy concluded.
“And I am looking forward to working with all the commissioners, but involving the commissioners in the ground-up project details moving forward.”
Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) thanked Guy for advancing the measure to support the construction of affordable housing at the county level.
“I think two things we wanted to stress, that we’re 100 percent behind you in the creation of the Inspector General and also with today’s presentation you made in regards to affordable housing for those who really need it,” Romano said.
Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) was the sole abstention, due to a conflict of interest since he’s the deputy director at the Elizabeth Development Company.
After the meeting, in an interview with HCV, Guy doubled down that this furthers his administration’s affordable housing goals he has been working towards.
“It just adds flavor to the goals that my administration and myself put on ourselves day one. To do any, not only to build affordable housing, which we’re going to do, but also to do whatever county government can do to help with the process of building units,” Guy declared
“And whether it’s the financing through the Improvement Authority bonding, it’s almost as good as building the brick and mortar, especially since project on Garfield Avenue is going to have a twenty percent share of affordable housing units. It’s going to be union labor, everything that we talk about when we’re going to put our plan into use for the building of affordable housing.”
According to Guy, this isn’t the first financing component the county has assisted with when it comes to affordable housing, recalling assistance with the Bayfront project on the West Side of Jersey City that broke ground last year on the first phase.
“We were at the forefront of Bayfront. That project was, the biggest affordable housing project in the country, was in jeopardy until I and the improvement authority got together and took another opportunity for Hudson County and myself to help and put our fingerprints into a huge affordable housing project.”
Another bond ordinance authorizing the guaranty of the payment of six million and interest of county-guaranteed bonds issued by the HCIA for various capital improvement projects in Guttenberg as the town no longer seeks to move forward with the financing action, officials said.
Call it what it is, crony housing. You gotta to know somebody to get in on any of those affordable units……and the units go to the friends and confidants of the project sponsors, not that poor bastard down the street looking thru the garbage for something to eat.