As you may recall from previous columns, I began looking at the statewide controversy surrounding the push for affordable housing in New Jersey. The state agency entrusted with the responsibility to make sure affordable housing is built in New Jersey is the Council On Affordable Housing; also referred to as COAH.

Previously, I shared with you some questions, answers or statements about affordable housing that have been provided by COAH in a fact sheet available on COAH's website. Two of the questions addressed were: What is affordable housing? and Who benefits from affordable housing? Let me refresh your memory with some quotes from COAH:

• Affordable housing is housing that is available to people of moderate income at a reasonable price. It is often built as townhomes or apartments but might also be a modest, well-kept single-family home. A typical two-bedroom townhouse would sell for $81,000 and a typical two-bedroom apartment would rent for $700.

A unit is generally considered affordable if the owner pays approximately 28 percent (30 percent for renters) or less of his/her gross income on housing costs. Housing costs include the base rent as well as the cost of utilities for renters and include mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and homeowner’s association fees for owners.

• Working-class families struggling to make ends meet, seniors, and people with disabilities all benefit from affordable housing.

Children who have grown up in the community and now entered the workforce but cannot find an affordable place to live benefit from affordable housing.

Senior citizens that can no longer afford to keep up their homes and people with disabilities seeking to live independently in the community need housing that is affordable on a fixed income.

Teachers, firefighters, childcare workers, home health aides, pre-school workers, and physician’s assistants whose services contribute to the quality of life and attractiveness of communities also need affordable housing.

The fastest growing sector of the economy in suburban areas is the service sector. Providing a range of housing opportunities within your community helps to ensure that the various services we all use at some point in our lives are available and convenient.

• Many people are surprised to learn that households earning up to 80 percent of area median income qualify for affordable housing. [In Cumberland, Atlantic, Cape May, and Salem counties, based on 2009 regional income limits, a family of four making around $54,000 qualifies for affordable housing.] And these incomes change yearly.

Providing affordable housing close to places of employment decreases road congestion, reduces commuting time, and saves energy.

Well, at the moment, it looks like affordable housing will continue to be more and more out of reach to Jerseyans who desperately need it. We learned last week that Gov. Christie issued an executive order that halts all work currently being done by COAH while a task force studies the issue.

According to the Fair Share Housing Center—the only public-interest organization entirely devoted to defending the housing rights of New Jersey’s poor—the effect of this order will clearly be a delay in building affordable housing, and is a continuation of a decade-long pattern of delay instead of building desperately needed homes.

So, I just have to ask:

• Where are families and individuals in need of affordable housing supposed to live?

• Will our local municipalities rejoice in the receipt of this executive order that enables them to stop building the affordable housing that they said they would build in their Fair Share and Housing Elements Plans filed with COAH last December 2009?

• Or, will our local municipalities recognize that—despite the executive order or even COAH—residents in their communities still need an affordable place to live?

• Will our local municipalities continue to address the housing problems facing residents right here or will they just stop as if there is no problem at all?

In the meantime, remember: Protect yourself and your family. Know your responsibilities as well as your rights and how to assert them when you need to.

Legal Notes is based on general law and is not intended as individualized advice. If you have a legal problem, contact a licensed attorney to discuss how the law affects your particular legal problem and facts.

South Jersey Legal Services offers free legal services to income-eligible residents and senior citizens in the seven southern counties: Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, Atlantic & Cape May. For assistance, call the centralized intake unit at 1-800-496-4570.