in what's considered a milestone for New Jersey's affordable housing problem Governor Murphy today signed a bill overhauling how towns up and down the state will determine the number of affordable units they need to fulfill a constitutional obligation the framework is considered one of the strongest in the country and sets up a formula to help municipalities figure out their share of homes for low and moderate income families in the state but a senior political correspondent David Cruz reports some fear it'll lead to overdevelopment in an already overcrowded State Joe Biden when he was vice president said something this is a big and today is a big Landmark you you can fill in the blank um this is a landmark Day by any measure Governor Phil Murphy reached back to Joe Biden's exuberance about Obamacare some years ago to fully Express his exuberance at today's Bill signing for a problem that has plagued New Jersey for a generation now the legislative fix came with lightning quickness for a bill in Trenton but assembly sponsor Ivon Lopez has been working on one version or another of this bill since she got into the assembly in 2018 thank you everyone for being here today I really appreciate all your support um it's it's just you know I'm just very emotional right now so thank you everyone thank you so much Lopez fought back some tears especially being in her hometown with Perth andoy today where she said bringing stability to the community depends on maintaining its economic diversity say signing has been a long journey for everyone involved however for the next decade and the decades after we will be ensuring that more new jerseyans can move into stay and thrive in the communities that they love today in signing this bill New Jersey makes a choice to embrace our diversity our dynamism and yes the Dignity of families like the people who live and work in the city of perthamboy and we choose those values as more important than the walls that divide us the bills abolished the Council on affordable housing which drew some Applause here today it also more directly involves the Department of Community Affairs in the process and makes the courts an Arbiter of Last Resort which they hope cuts down on lawsuits with estimates that New Jersey needs to build more than 200,000 units of affordable housing to meet the growing need speaker Craig Coughlin says the new set of builds will have a profound impact on that number although he couldn't quite quantify it you have to put this in context I mean literally Decades of litigation fighting you know people trying to to to avoid uh providing housing for people all of that stuff has we really hope that this has now brought everybody together but even some Democrats have had a bone to pick with the bills Jersey city mayor Steve Phillip says big city like his should not be exempt under so-called Urban Aid exemptions Urban Aid exemptions is built on an outdated assumption that New Jersey cities have enough affordable housing and that we're incapable of producing more it's wrong and the fact is we are thriving and we should lift as we climb but beyond the affordable housing crisis cities like Jersey City Newark and Patterson and others face the often forgotten crisis of lowincome and subsidized housing housing for the most challenged the poorest and the unhoused I think that something like homelessness is a Scourge on the state of New Jersey it's something we have an obligation we are our brothers and sisters Keepers we have an obligation to make sure they do and the town as I said you know as I said at the end we are all better when everybody is is in a good place right when they're wellfed when they have a place to live when they have opportunity have healthare all of those things and so uh this doesn't this is this isn't the end true but a bill as Monumental as this one only serves to show how far the state still needs to go to make sure that everyone has a place to call home I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News