Published Aug 15, 2025
New Jersey state Sen. Owen Henry is angry.
Before he was elected to the Legislature last year, he’d negotiated as the mayor of Old Bridge to build 12 new affordably priced homes — many of them for veterans — on an empty lot not far from the beach, in the Laurence Harbor neighborhood on the town’s east end.
Builders said they should have already broken ground. But the project is on an indefinite hold because Owen’s legislative colleagues decided in June to divert $125 million from a long-standing state trust fund for constructing affordable housing across the Garden State and spend it instead on other initiatives, including down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Gov. Phil Murphy supported shifting the funds, touting them as a way to provide New Jerseyans with immediate housing assistance.
“ I’m very upset. In my opinion, the diversion of those funds is totally asinine,” Henry, a Republican, told Gothamist.
The housing project in Old Bridge is part of a wider effort to build tens of thousands of affordable homes across the state. Analysis from housing experts shows that New Jersey is short more than 200,000 homes for low-income residents. To combat the problem, each municipality in the state is legally mandated to add its share of affordable housing.
Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit organization in charge of the development, hoped to use the state’s sizable Affordable Housing Trust Fund to fill a $4 million gap in financing for the project. The trust fund provides financial assistance for developers and towns to build more low-priced homes. But the Legislature’s diversion of money has left just $5 million dollars in the trust fund’s coffers — not enough for the Old Bridge plan or other projects.
Read the full article on the Gothamist website HERE.
