Making Newark Work for Newarkers: Housing and Equitable Growth in the Next Brick City
David D. Troutt
2017
Making Newark Work for Newarkers is the full report of the Rutgers University-Newark Project on Equitable Growth in the City of Newark, written by CLiME and incorporating research conducted in conjunction with a university working group whose work began last April. We viewed the goal of equitable growth first in the context of housing issues before expanding to think about the fabric of community life and economic opportunity in the city. This Executive Summary includes the main findings from each chapter as well as the highlights from a comprehensive set of recommendations we submitted to Mayor Ras Baraka on October 27, 2017.
The key fact that animates any study of equity and opportunity in a city undergoing downtown redevelopment is this: Newarkers face a longstanding crisis of housing affordability.
Newarkers in Context
Newark is a city of renters.
Newark is a working-class city with only a small middle class and high rates of
poverty.
Newark housing costs are rising in relative and absolute terms.
Newark has a substantial amount of subsidized housing—20% of all units—and
more than half of its 110,000 units are subject to rent regulation.
Measures of the Affordability Gap
Rents Are Rising While Wages Are Falling
Adjusted for inflation, median rents have risen by 20% since 2000, while median household incomes have fallen by 10%.
The Mismatch in Rents to Incomes Increases Rent Burdens
Today, over 20,000 households in Newark are paying more than 50 percent of their income towards rent, which makes them extremely rent burdened. Rent burden is the norm for those who make under $50,000. The median household income in Newark is about $37,000.
High Asking Rents Begin to Emerge
During the summer of 2017, the median asking rent advertised on Trulia and Craigslist was almost $1,400. This figure may be aspirational in some cases, and most Newarkers don’t find their housing online. However, in 2015, very few units were advertised for rent asking above $1500 per month. Two years later, as the figure below indicates, more than a quarter of asking rents surpassed $1500.
The High Vacancy Irony
Despite a lack of units affordable to most Newarkers, the City has a very high vacancy rate—16%—which may reflect persistently high foreclosures and abandoned property.
Homeownership Riddle: Low Prices Yet High Costs to Own
Newark home values have been slow to recover from the Great Recession. Newark lost 22% of its median home value between 2010 and 2015. Though the current median home value (2017) in the city is $219,000, most homeowners are mortgaged burdened.
Tenants are Vulnerable to Eviction
The rate in Newark is about 25%; last year 40,000 evictions were sought.
Continue reading this report in its entirety below:
Making Newark Work for Newarkers: Housing and Equitable Growth in the Next Brick City