HOW DOES YOUR COMMUNITY VIEW AFFORDABLEHOUSING?

New Jersey is an extremely expensive state, and even thosewith good, full-time jobs struggle to find an affordable place tolive. Responses to this week's poll indicate that their strugglemay continue. Nearly half (45%) of the responses say that theircommunities have adopted a 'Not in My Back Yard' stance when itcomes to affordable housing. An almost equal number (41%) say thateducation has helped, but affordable housing is not yet widelyaccepted by residents in their area. A mere 14% say their communityembraces it. Lori Grifa, a partner in the law firm Wolff &Samson in West Orange discusses how the community ofnon-residential developers views affordable housing:

"Generally, the non-residential developers I represent don'tobject to participating in the process of providing affordablehousing in some respect. However, the new regulations that havebeen proposed threaten to derail non-residential development in NewJersey because they are so burdensome.