Section 52:27D-321.3 - Findings, declarations relative to online marketing of affordable housing units The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. In recent years, housing costs in New Jersey have increased dramatically at rates that have outpaced rises in income, making the State the sixth most expensive in the United States and growing the number of renters and homeowners that are housing cost-burdened, spending a disproportionate percentage of their income on high rent or mortgage payments;b. To address the Statewide shortage in affordable housing, tens of thousands of affordable housing units have been and will be made available to very low-, low-, and moderate-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities in New Jersey through a wide variety of federal and State programs, including those implemented under the "Fair Housing Act," P.L. 1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.);c. Current rules designed to implement the "Fair Housing Act" require that the developer or administrative agent of the affordable units affirmatively market their units through newspaper and radio or television, but digital marketing is not explicitly required;d. Due to the fragmentation of information consumption and the advent of housing search websites, an increasing number of residents are conducting their housing searches online;e. The manner in which residents are searching for affordable housing and the existing rules for affirmatively marketing affordable units are no longer compatible due to changes in technology and, therefore, necessitate an update to facilitate more effective, streamlined, and fair searches of affordable housing for very low-, low-, and moderate-income residents of New Jersey in the furtherance of the "Fair Housing Act";f. An infrastructure for hosting the increased postings already exists as the New Jersey Housing Resource Center, an affordable housing listing portal overseen by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency; andg. It is, therefore, in the interest of the residents of the State, and necessary for ensuring that the State's municipalities are compliant with their constitutional responsibility to affirmatively afford a reasonable opportunity for low- and moderate-income families to reside in their boundaries, that the agency, developers, and municipalities comply with P.L. 2020, c. 51(C.52:27D-321.3 et seq.).Added by L. 2020, c. 51, s. 1, eff. 11/1/2020.