Sherrill hosts renters roundtable in Jersey City to discuss increasingly difficult costs

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-10), a Democratic candidate for governor, hosted a renters roundtable in Jersey City to discuss catastrophically high rents and what can be done on the state level to fix them.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

” … The scarcity, the fact that when people cannot afford houses and are going into the rental market, is driving up costs everywhere, so over half the renters in New Jersey are what nationally we would call ‘rent burdened,’ meaning people are paying more than 30 percent of their income in rental prices,” Sherrill said at the Snapdragon Coffee and Social.

” … One of the key things is supply. We have over 200,000 more rental units that we need to address the supply that we need to drive those costs down. We’re second to last in the nation for how much housing inventory we’ve added since 2019.”

She continued that even with an influx of people moving to New Jersey from New York City and Philadelphia during the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply has not been able to keep up with the demand.

The congresswoman also mentioned that a lot of vacant land remains underutilized throughout the Garden State and that part of that is due to outdated municipal zoning rules that can make it difficult to build, suggesting that state permits should be more streamlined process as well.

Sherrill also blamed the tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump’s (R) for curbing new building, recalling that a developer told her that building a new HVAC system is now going go to cost about 30 to 40 percent more than it used to.

To that end, she noted that U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (NY-05), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is trying to force a vote to halt the president’s tariffs.

The majority of the roughly hour-long session had the seven-person panel discuss their struggles in finding and maintaining housing in recent years.

Rachael, a single mother who lives in Monmouth County and just recently got out of an abusive relationship, said she doesn’t have a car and therefore needs to live in a location that has public transit options.

She further stated that one-bedroom apartment initially cost her $2,100 a month, which has gone up at least $100 every year since, with upgrading to a two-bedroom being unfeasible since it’s over $1,000 more a month.

Another woman, Neesha, said she moved to the Newport section of Jersey City last year, her first venture into New Jersey, and pays about $2,800 a month, which she felt was necessary to have a manageable commute to her job in New York City.

She noted that she had to do a Zoom interview before being accepted into her apartment, a particularly stressful endeavor since she did the interview on Friday and was not sure of the outcome until Monday, when her new employment began.

Chris Capers, a born and raised Jersey City resident who is also a LIUNA union member (a group that has endorsed Sherrill for governor), discussed his plight.

“Here in Jersey City renting or just owning anything just seem out of touch for me. I am a union laborer, I thought I was making good wages up until this year,” he laughed.

“I do have a son that’s going to high school, so that’s challenging, like Mikie said, I am taking care of my two parents who are retired and on Social Security and with the Trumpster and Elon [Musk], and then with tariffs, it’s becoming a struggle for me.”

He said he is looking to own a home in Jersey City, but the bidding wars often end with someone making an offer to the tune of $200,000 over asking price or a hedge fund buying up multiple properties in one fell swoop.

“I think again, just that all of this revolved around scarcity. So hedge funds are buying these things out because prices are so high, and they’re making money, and nobody can get kind of out of that loop, and like you said, they’re trying to create permanent renters, it feels like,” Sherrill said when Capers asked what her affordability plan looks like.

” … In a state like New Jersey, where we have environmental issues, environmental damage, and we need open spaces, because so many of us found during COVID that we like to be out, we like a park, to go outside, so in the most densely populated state in the nation, we don’t want to just come up with unmitigated building, we want a thoughtful plan.”

Another born and raised Jersey City resident, Sequoia Simmons, stated that she lives in Hudson Gardens and that nearly 70 percent of her income goes towards paying her rent.

In an interview, Sherrill said she wanted to host the panel in Jersey City since they have the second highest rents in the country and was interested in hearing individuals stories.

“So we’ve seen rental prices here in Jersey City skyrocket, in fact, they’re now the second highest in the entire nation and I wanted to here from people here how that was impacting them and what we could do to do better and if the supply shortage was really driving up prices.”

When asked about a column in The Record last week that highlighted her campaign has received support from Democratic party chairs across the state, a popular strategy when the county line system was still in effect, Sherrill said her approach has always been consistent.

“I have always built incredibly broad coalitions, I’ve worked closely with grassroots groups across the state, we’re doing a roundtable to here from people on the ground about how things are impacting them,” she explained.

“First and foremost, I have always built a coalition of people based on my desire to hear from people across the community then address those things that are sometimes called that last thing keeping you up at night. So as I look to run hard races, I think the most effective thing to do is to hear from people across the state, come up with a great policy platform, and then to have a history of being real effective at executing that.”

Sherrill is competing against Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, and U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) in the June 10th Democratic primary.