a New Jersey mayor wants to make sure affordable housing is implemented in all towns and cities across the state not just Suburban towns Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali says he sent a letter to about 100 towns looking for support to challenge jerseys current affordable housing law and he plans to follow a lawsuit while Mayors and municipalities like Paterson and Jersey City have criticized Ghassali's approach arguing they already contribute their fair share Ghassali says the requirements are not realistic for towns like his he joins me now mayor thanks for joining me thank you for having me all right so with soaring housing prices and even Skyrocket rent in some areas affordable housing has been a game Cher for those who are eligible for it in all types of towns and cities including in Montvale but mayor you are you the law is unfair why is that well in monville specifically we build about 365 units in The Last 5 Years so 10% of monville is all affordable housing uh I'm not arguing the fact that we need affordable housing I am arguing the fact that there are 62 towns that don't have any obligations to build up affordable housing yet they are building but it's not counted toward the overall State obligation and all we're asking is for those numbers to be included so each of the towns of the 565 towns in the state have a fair share of the obligation that's the argument fair enough but you do plan to file a lawsuit challenging the current state guidelines what are you asking for uh challenging the urban um uh uh Aid towns that have been in their status since 1995 so Jersey City for example in 1995 is a lot different than 2024 and Jersey City specifically to their mayor said that should have affordable housing obligation because they're already building it uh so that's what the lawsuit is it's it's not about the uh the round four although the timing of the round four and what we have to do um is very challenging so we will be talking about that also but as far as the Urban Aid municipalities we want them to be included in the count what's the alternative in order to meet the need for affordable housing in your municipality and elsewhere throughout the state oh we have to build there's there there's no question I have two boys who will not afford to live in the town that they grew up in uh so I get it 100% we absolutely have to build and we are building like I said uh 10% of my town is Affordable and we will build more but the challenge we have is we don't have the infrastructure so now we have to put a second water tower because the fire hydrant don't have enough water pressure uh the streets we have to widen we just passed a $30 million referendum them so the schools can build more more school room because we don't have enough room so all that is accounted for well mayor how I know that you put a petition out for some 100 different towns where do they stand so they're all in the same boat I actually sent a letter to all 565 towns including the 62 towns uh I met with a mayor Ras Baraka about this uh we're in in agreement that we need to build affordable housing because we want everyone to have that opportunity my boys when they finish college they will be in the affordable housing market uh because they can't afford to live in a fair market uh in value you know houses but uh we're building we just want to build that's rightly and where we can build yeah yeah thank you so much I really appreciate your perspective and joining me mayor my pleasure thank you [Music]