A group of local officials in New Jersey want to try something different to tackle the Garden State’s growing affordability problem — housing for low and middle-income renters on land owned by the county.
Hudson County Executive Craig Guy is using a small, $570,000 loan to develop plans for transforming a set of publicly owned parking lots in Jersey City into 700 new apartments, including over 200 homes that would stay affordable in perpetuity.
The county will remain the landlord. Guy said his office plans to partner with private entities to manage the property after it is built.
“This was a number one initiative for me when I decided to run for county executive,” Guy, who assumed the role in 2024, told Gothamist.
If the plan is approved by Jersey City officials, the “County Plaza” project would make Hudson County the first in the state to pursue an affordable housing project on county owned land, with a hope it can serve as a model for other parts of New Jersey.
Nathaniel Styer, spokesperson for Mayor James Solomon, said Jersey City is on board with the project.
“The County Plaza proposal is a rare opportunity to turn an underutilized parking lot into affordable housing, while transforming the area into a thriving, livable space,’ he said. “We will ensure that Hudson County works with local leaders and members of the neighborhoods as the details of this project come together.”
Unlike counties, many New Jersey municipalities already own and operate affordable housing. But lawmakers have tended to eschew that model for the past half-century and have instead largely favored tax incentives for developers and voucher programs that pay private landlords.
That’s why Hudson County’s plan stands out to affordable housing advocates like Adam Gordon, executive director of Fair Share Housing Center, even if that plan is still in its early stages.
“Most counties own land,” Gordon said. “It really has an opportunity to provide a pathway for other people to do this at the county level,” he said.
The project will require many millions of dollars in additional financing. Guy and other officials involved in the project declined to speculate how much they’ll need to raise for the project. The Geraldine R. Dodge foundation provided the initial loan.
“$570.000 might not seem like a lot, but there's not a lot of ways to get that in early phases of construction,” said Samra Haider, president and CEO of the foundation. “We like that it's innovative, and our goal would be, can this be replicable throughout the state? So not stopping at Hudson County.”
Draft rendering of site plan for County Plaza affordable housing project
Like many states, New Jersey has a critical shortage of affordable housing. A March report from the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey and the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that the state only has 34 affordable apartments for every 100 low-income households.
Under the state's Mount Laurel doctrine, a 50-year old legal statute that requires every municipality to contribute its fair share of affordable housing, cities and towns across New Jersey are required to collectively generate tens of thousands of new units of affordable housing over the next decade.
Jersey City has some of the highest requirements in the state. It’s New Jersey’s second largest city and ranks among the top five in a national tally of the most expensive places to rent an apartment. It also has a mandate to generate about 3,000 new affordable housing units, either through rehabilitation of old housing or new builds, by 2025.
“Jersey City does have a pretty substantial obligation,” Gordon said. “I think this is exactly the kind of innovative strategy that we need.”
As the affordability crisis continues to deepen, states like New Jersey are talking more about how social housing could be a durable solution.
In April, Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed an executive order instructing the Department of Community Affairs, the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and several other agencies to evaluate how underutilized state-owned land can be repurposed as housing.
On Wednesday, Sherrill announced the state would seek development partners to build new, transit-oriented housing on state-owned land in Bayonne and Linden.
“She stole that idea from me,” Guy joked. He said a parking lot is “not the best use of our property.”
“I'm seeing neighborhoods,” Guy said, envisioning what could replace the lot. “I'm seeing businesses. You know, I'm seeing a daycare. I'm seeing people being comfortable in this section [of Jersey City] that they can actually call as home.”
Jay Valgora, founder of Studio V architects, runs the firm tasked with designing the project. He said his team is including commercial spaces that could be used for a supermarket, restaurants, and wellness centers into their design — as well as open spaces.
“We've done outreach and we're talking to folks from those communities around here, and we're finding what kind of things they want — trees and planted areas, playgrounds for their kids,” he said. “These are all some of the elements that we're incorporating into the design based on the community feedback we've received so far.”
Guy and others involved in the project said they’re hoping to put forth a redevelopment plan for the property this fall for Jersey City officials to approve.
