Fair Housing & Equity Assessment Report
Together North Jersey
30 March 2015
FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Equity and access to opportunity are critical underpinnings of TOGETHER North Jersey’s Regional Plan for Sustainable Development. Therefore, the planning process includes the preparation of this assessment of Fair Housing and Equity in the Northern New Jersey region.
As part of the process to develop a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (RPSD) for the TOGETHER North Jersey planning region, the TNJ Project Team worked with the TOGETHER North Jersey Steering Committee and Standing Committees to conduct a Fair Housing and Equity Assessment (FHEA) for the region, resulting in this report.
The Fair Housing and Equity Assessment (FHEA) provides a framework for considering what it may mean to live in places of “high” or “low opportunity” in Northern New Jersey. The FHEA identifies how the benefits or burdens of residential settlement location may be experienced differently by various groups across the region and provides a platform for addressing these disparities. Among other issues, the FHEA includes an assessment of:
• Patterns of segregation, diversity, and racial and ethnic integration;
• Concentrations of poverty; and
• Accessibility to areas of high “opportunity.”
The FHEA also examines how patterns of planned and recent infrastructure investments; fair housing issues, services, and activities; and regulatory and private market barriers to fair housing choice may contribute to existing socioeconomic patterns.
In preparing the FHEA, TNJ has conducted extensive data analysis, held an array of deliberative processes that considered the methods and findings of the analysis, and invited participating stakeholders to explore and recommend strategies and actions to address regional disparities in fair housing and access to opportunity to inform the development of the TOGETHER North Jersey RPSD.
FHEA REPORT PREPARATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Edward J. Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy University, Rutgers University – David Aimen PP/AICP, Scott Fishberg, Julius Jessup • PlanSmart NJ – Bob Kull, PP/AICP, Alisa Goren, Zlata Kobzantsev • Housing and Community Development Planning, Vito Gallo, PP
Thank you to all the participating members of the TNJ project team as well as David Troutt from the Rutgers Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) for their valued contributions as advisory group members and for holding and attending events to promote discussion of the issues and recommendations of the FHEA.
TOGETHER NORTH JERSEY (TNJ) PROJECT TEAM: Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) - David Troutt • Edward J. Bloustein School for Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University • North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) • NJ TRANSIT • NJ Office of Planning Advocacy (NJOPA) • Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey (HCDN‐NJ) • NJ Future • Building One New Jersey • PlanSmart NJ • Regional Plan Association (RPA) • Sustainability Institute/Sustainable Jersey at The College of New Jersey • Participating local and county governments of the NJTPA region
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