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COLEMAN SAYS REVITALIZING NEW
JERSEY’S DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES SHOULD BE A PRIORITY FOR THE
NEXT GOVERNOR
Green Party gubernatorial candidate Jerry Coleman announced
his support for initiatives to increase economic opportunities
and affordable housing availability in all New Jersey
communities.
Coleman, the former president of the Rahway city council,
challenged the other candidates for Governor to join him in
supporting the 2001 Community Development Platform of the
Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
The nonpartisan Housing and Community Development Network of
New Jersey has
reported that New Jersey ranked last year as the least
affordable state to live in and that 10 percent of all families
pay more than half their income for housing.
"New Jersey deserves a governor committed to making sure
that the state is no longer the least affordable to live
in," said Coleman, who has over 20 years of experience
working with community organizations.
Responding to the state’s vast economic disparities and
disturbing housing crisis, Coleman outlined his support for
several strategies to improve opportunities for New Jersey’s
working families:
- Coleman supports policies to ensure that municipalities
develop more low-income housing.
- Coleman feels that the state government should provide
municipalities with greater assistance in redeveloping
abandoned properties to improve environmental and economic
conditions for community residents.
- Coleman supports increased funding for state rental
assistance programs that help low-income families pay for
housing.
- Coleman wants more inner-city residents and lower-income
people to be employed in government jobs that pay a living
wage. Coleman also supports a mandatory living wage for the
employees of government contractors.
Coleman said, "Only by addressing the concerns of New
Jersey’s lower-income residents, can we significantly improve
environmental conditions and race relations in our state’s
economically disadvantaged communities."
Green Party of the United States Platform:
- Decent, AFFORDABLE HOUSING for every American must be a
component of a campaign at the federal, state and local
level.
- We hold that government should play an activist role in
the availability of housing. A COORDINATED HOUSING PLAN that
is broad and inclusive should devote resources to non-profit
community housing projects, private sector investments and
appropriate public housing initiatives that encourage
individual ownership over time.
- We encourage low-impact, site-specific designs that
encourage human-scale development and environmentally
sensitive planning.
- Pension funds and community development banks can be
targeted and can become important sources of new funding.
Subsidies, trade-offs with developers, and the creative use
of city and county zoning ordinances should be emphasized to
increase the affordable housing stock available within local
communities depending on need.
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