Newark, NJ-September 13, 2023—Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced today that an August 2 amendment to the Newark Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance (IZO) initiated by the Mayor and passed by the Municipal Council will permit the City to exclusively market new affordable units to Newark residents during a 90-day period. This will ensure that more city residents can benefit from the affordable units.
“This is a step forward in ensuring that families who have lived in Newark generation after generation, and others who share pride in City residency, can stay here,” said Mayor Baraka. “Our original Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance was a national model for producing affordable housing. This amendment expands Newark’s leadership in housing innovation. At a time when corporate LLCs are turning affordable homes in our city into high-cost rentals, this initiative is creating new affordable housing reserved for the people who live in Newark.”
The City issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) on September 8 seeking entities to serve as Inclusionary Zoning Administrators to administer the program under oversight by the Newark Department of Economic and Housing Development. The role of Inclusionary Zoning Administrators (The Agent) is critical to the advancement of the City’s housing goals. The Agent(s) responsible for the administration of affordable units will be a private entity, community organization, or housing counseling agency, as qualified by the City through this RFQ process.
The Administrative Agent will create a process by which currently income-eligible households are selected for placement in income-restricted units such that no preference is given to one applicant over another except for purposes of matching household income and size with an appropriately priced and sized affordable unit by a lottery system. In addition, all units will be listed on the city’s searchable database, NewarkHousingSearch.com. The law requires that no preference may given to one applicant over another except for purposes of matching household income and size with an appropriately priced and sized affordable unit through a lottery system.
After receipt, review, and evaluation of qualification statements received in response to the RFQ, the City of Newark intends to have Qualified Administering Agents included on a pre-qualified list that will be published on the municipal website. This will allow owners to independently engage the services of an administrative agent at the owners’ sole cost and expense and without the City being a party to any such contract.
“This amendment is one of a series of initiatives that Mayor Baraka has taken to make Newark housing more affordable for Newark residents,” said Allison Ladd, Deputy Mayor and Director of Economic and Housing Development. “These include a $20 million investment to support the creation of units affordable to Newark families earning $32,000 or less, the original Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, recent IZO amendments that increase the number of covered housing units, more than $20 million in Emergency Rental Assistance to help Newarkers impacted by COVID-19, the creation of the first land bank in the state of New Jersey, and neighborhood development plans that prioritize affordability and the use of MWBE developers and contractors.”
FOR APPLICANTS:
- There will be a Zoom information session for respondents on Monday, September 18, at 2 p.m. To join meeting:
https://NewarkNJ.zoom.us/j/89617649376?pwd=WXZwcklBMEtjamZWWEQ5ZzdoSW FWUT09
- Applicants can find the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance amendments, the Request for Qualifications for IZO Administrator and corresponding RFQ response documents here.
- Qualification statements submission due date is Thursday, October 5.
- Qualified respondents will be announced on Friday, October 27.
- For any inquiries, please call (973) 733-4882.
