Affordable housing is the hot topic of the Perry-Morris Middletown debate

MIDDLETOWN, NJ – Affordable housing was undoubtedly the hottest topic at the Middletown Township Committee debate held Tuesday night.

You can view the forum here; It was moderated by a member of the League of Women Voters who lives in Neptune. She asked many questions from the Middletown public.

Mayor Tony Perry, a Republican, and Mike Morris, a Democrat, are battling each other for a seat on the Middletown Township Committee. And their confrontation got heated Tuesday when Perry accused Morris of doing the bidding of Gov. Phil Murphy (who lives in Middletown and supports Morris) and Morris accused Perry of “mongering fear” about the state’s new affordable housing mandates.

Perry and Morris disagree on many issues, but what they disagree most about is affordable housing: Morris believes Middletown must comply with the state’s new affordable housing quotas, just released Friday became.

While Perry believes Middletown needs to fight the new quotas, he called them on his Facebook page this week “the latest and completely unreasonable mandate to build high-density housing under the guise of ‘affordability.’

In his opening statement, Morris said, “Middletown is at a critical moment right now: Middletown is grappling with an affordability crisis. Young people who grew up here find it difficult to stay in the community they love. And seniors are being pushed out by skyrocketing property taxes.”

“I want to provide more opportunities for our young people to stay in our community and not be overvalued,” Morris continued. “Seniors who have lived in the city for years, who may have inherited something and live on family properties, cannot afford our property taxes. I want to look at how we collect our property taxes and look at the annual assessments. See how they drive up property taxes.”

In Middletown, property taxes have risen over the past eight years to fund schools and preserve open space.

In fact, Perry emphasized in his opening statement that preserving open space was a key goal of his time as mayor. There will also be a question on the ballot about preserving more open space in Middletown, which Perry encouraged residents to vote yes on.

Perry said Tuesday night’s forum was “an opportunity to hear two different visions of Middletown.”

Middletown needs to build new affordable housing units, says the state of New Jersey

Just last Friday, the state of New Jersey released a new set of affordable housing commitments for each of the state’s 564 cities. These are quotas that cities/towns in New Jersey must meet over the next 10 years.

You can read the state’s list here:

Middletown needs to build 346 new affordable units. But Perry said the number is actually much higher: Perry said developers are using affordable housing mandates to build hundreds of market-rate units, with a handful of affordable units added. He warned that the state’s new quota could result in 5,400 new homes being built in Mittelstadt.

“If you want to know what’s making cities across New Jersey unaffordable, it’s these constant demands for affordable housing,” Perry said in the debate. “This is what overvalues ​​our young people and seniors. They need to hire more police officers, build new schools, expand our schools. That’s what drives property taxes. I’m not sure how we can address affordability without dealing with these unfunded mandates that the state is shoving down our throats.”

Morris then accused Perry of exaggerating the 5,400 figure.

“I don’t know where Tony got his numbers that 5,000 units need to be built, but Middletown only needs to provide 346 units in the next 10 years,” Morris replied. “Where he gets 5,000 units is a crazy idea that only Tony can explain because it comes out of his mouth to fear people.”

“What Morris doesn’t understand is that no developer creates just affordable housing,” Perry retorted. “If you say 346 units, you have to multiply that. No developer simply creates affordable housing. He needs to create four units for every affordable unit.”

In 2019, Patch was the only media outlet to report that Middletown had taken the highly unusual step of withdrawing from state affordable housing requirements. It was a decision that allowed the city to be sued by developers for failing to comply with affordable housing requirements, known as “developer remedial actions.”

Since then, Middletown has actually been sued by developers.

At Tuesday night’s forum, Morris brought up the lawsuits that he said are burdening Middletown taxpayers.

“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on appeals from builders,” he said. “This is an outrage. The taxpayers have to pay that.”

Perry maintained that Middletown will continue to fight New Jersey’s affordable housing mandates and litigate if necessary.

“We have to challenge the system,” Perry said. “I’m fighting for Middletown. I will not apologize for fighting for Middletown.”

Increasing traffic in Middletown is also a concern

Morris also blamed Perry for increased traffic in Middletown, particularly on the highway. 36.

“They say they’ve done traffic studies, but I don’t see any improvements anywhere,” Morris said.

Morris also said Middletown was “opaque,” which Perry responded as an “insult to our communications team.” Middletown is as transparent as can be, far more so than most communities around us.”

Bail reform is also a hot topic

Perry also attacked cashless bail reform, which he said has “put residents across New Jersey at risk.”

There is no bail anymore in the state of New Jersey: most arrestees are released until their next court date, while the most serious offenders (those accused of murder or sexual assault) remain in prison until trial.

Morris responded: “Tony doesn’t mention that bail reform was enacted by Chris Chris. He likes to blame the Democrats for bail reform, but Chris Christie signed it into law, so we didn’t create a debtor’s prison in New. Cash bail allowed rich offenders to pay their bail while less wealthy offenders remained in jail “Until states from all over America came to New Jersey to see bail reform being done, it was a tremendous, tremendous success.”

Morris accused Perry of pointing to “one or two examples” where a repeat offender violated his bail.

Morris also calls for the people of Middletown to elect their own mayor instead of the Township Committee (all Republicans) electing the mayor.

Perry said Middletown residents “are not interested in who or how the mayor is elected.” He called it “a made-up issue that Middletown Democrats have pushed over and over again and that doesn’t seem to resonate with voters.”

Watch the entire debate here. it took 58 minutes:

Middletown withdraws from New Jersey affordable housing mandate (2019)