Jersey city mayor Steve Fulop says New Jersey has an affordable housing crisis and he's got a plan to fix it fup today unveiled his latest proposal as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2025 pledging to double the funding for construction and overhaul state tax credits if elected senior correspondent Joanna Gagis has the story when you talk about affordability housing is a key part of that conversation Jersey city mayor Steve Fulop is on the campaign Trail joining today with South Orange mayor Sheena colum and assemblywoman saddaf Jaffer to unveil his plan to tackle affordable housing in New Jersey if elected as New Jersey's next Governor we have a commitment to double the affordable housing production that has existed in New Jersey Fulop says that COA the Council on affordable housing needs reforms in terms of how municipalities are required to provide affordable housing to minimize what's now often a costly drawn out battle in the courts between towns and the state transparency is important because most residents don't know today what their municipalities is actually doing if their municipalities fighting secondly um we do want to tie state aid that you're eligible for to meeting those uh goals on affordable housing the public session was held in South Orange in a new luxury apartment complex that set aside 11 out of the 110 units as affordable housing units one of the guiding principles of South orange as we meet our affordable housing obligations is that our affordable units mirror our market rate so all the finishings are identical for the one two and three bedrooms and all the residents of the affordable units have full access to all the amenities and um that's really what inclusionary development should look like all throughout the state of New Jersey it's one of several affordable housing developments in South Orange as part of their state requirement a key here is their building around the train station something Jason Williams from the fair share housing center says is critical Transit hubs are are really really important um we need to understand that for you to have a home is for you to think about employment for you to think about child care for you to think about education um access to health care so um building around Transit Centric places are uh critical for those that are in affordable housing assembly woman saddaf Jaffer is Happy the plan addresses rent increases that often hurt low to moderate income residents many who are people of color she says we need Clarity around what an unreasonable rise in rents is because people come to me or say you know this has happened where is it outlined that something is reasonable or unreasonable I think that we need Clarity around that and I'm glad that we'll be providing that mayor Fulop governs a city that struggles with affordability perhaps more than any other in the state he believes his efforts there are a model for other urban areas Jersey city has built more affordable housing than anybody in New Jersey let's start there it's an important Point number one and you could always do better but we have built more than anybody in New Jersey and his plan would address tax abatements that he and colum agree are critical to incentivize developers but that often become political footballs in local Council meetings there is a massive misunderstanding about what tax abatements are they are weaponized against local governments under the assumption that somehow a big greedy developer is getting an unfair advantage and that is not correct the development Community are our partners and actually achieving our affordable housing Milestones mayor Fulop says that doubling the affordable housing here in New Jersey will be the first priority of his administration and that it'll happen in the first 100 days in South Orange I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News