Supreme Court crushes NJ towns’ revolt against affordable housing mandate

🔴 U.S. Supreme Court refuses to block New Jersey’s affordable housing mandate.

🔴 Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali calls the Mount Laurel Doctrine destructive.

🔴 State officials say the ruling could create affordable housing for 100,000 families.

The highest court in the nation has denied a last-ditch effort to overturn New Jersey's affordable housing mandates.

On Tuesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied a request for an emergency injunction from dozens of local officials who claimed the mandates were unconstitutional. The decision leaves in place last October's ruling by a Mercer County Superior Court judge upholding the 2024 Affordable Housing Reform Law.

Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali has become the face of the movement to overturn the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which forces every New Jersey town to allow developers to build the town's "fair share" of affordable housing.

Montvale has 3,000 households currently, and is now required to make room for 350 units of affordable housing by 2035. It's a similar story for other small towns. Ghassali said the affordable housing mandate is destroying New Jersey communities.

"Our goal is to stand up against high-density development that enriches developers, inflates market rate prices, and pushes even more families out of reach of the very communities they want to call home. When most of the newly constructed one-bedroom apartments have rents for $4,000 a month, that is not affordability," Ghassali said.

State leaders celebrate court victory, cite housing crisis

The Supreme Court's rejection was celebrated by Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, who was confirmed by the state Senate on Tuesday.

“Every level of the state and federal courts has now rejected this effort by a small group of towns and their officials to upend New Jersey's landmark affordable-housing law. We look forward to continuing to defend New Jerseyans' rights to affordable housing under our law.”

The mandate will make housing affordable for 100,000 New Jersey families over the next decade, said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex. He was a prime sponsor of the 2024 affordable housing law that was challenged.

"The courts have spoken clearly and consistently, and New Jersey families cannot afford further slowdowns in addressing our housing shortage," Coughlin said.

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New Jersey slows down on affordable housing construction

However, the state has an uphill battle to catch up to Coughlin's goals. A recent RentCafe.com analysis found that affordable housing construction in New Jersey slowed recently, while it soared to record highs in other parts of the country. 

The study found that between 2020 and 2024, New Jersey built 60,161 total new apartments. Only 6.5% of those — 3,901 units — were fully affordable apartments. Nationwide, around 12.6% of new apartment construction was affordable.

In 2024, only 567 fully affordable units were built in the state of New Jersey. There were 91,000 units built throughout the rest of the country.

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