Housing and Equity
New Jersey’s traditional approach to housing resulted for a long time in concentrated poverty in urban areas and migration of both wealth and jobs to the suburbs. The lack of housing near good jobs reduced opportunities for families with modest incomes to live near where they work. New Jersey will need to leverage market forces and public policy to create housing opportunities for lower-income households in high-opportunity places, including its revitalizing cities, and especially near transit. Simultaneously, the state’s housing and investment policies should support the strategic rebuilding of weak markets to create vibrant, mixed-income communities.

“Sixty-two thousand homes along New Jersey’s coast will experience chronic flooding by 2050,” said Diane Schrauth, Water Policy Director at New Jersey Future, during the 2025 NJ Planning & Redevelopment Conference (NJPRC). That will be the material reality for tens of thousands of New Jerseyans who will face skyrocketing flood insurance rates, loss of property value, and, eventually, displacement.

As New Jersey faces a growing housing crisis, it’s becoming increasingly clear that water infrastructure is more than just a utility concern; it’s a fundamental barrier to equitable development and housing growth.

As we bid a fond farewell to Chris Sturm, policy director and longtime advocate at New Jersey Future, we celebrate a legacy of leadership rooted in passion, persistence, and purpose. Chris has been a driving force behind some of New Jersey Future’s most successful initiatives—from promoting equitable water infrastructure to championing great places to live. On her final day, Chris sat down with me to reflect on what she’s most proud of, what she’s learned, and what she hopes for the future.

New Jersey’s demographic shifts and our current housing supply and affordability crisis require planners and local officials to rethink what many consider “traditional” housing models and explore, embrace, and encourage a variety of living arrangements. Intergenerational housing models—living arrangements that bring together people of different generations, regardless of if they hold familial relationship—offer ways to meet our housing and community needs and plan for the future.

At the 2025 New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference, hosted in partnership by New Jersey Future and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association, Beth Osborne—Interim President and CEO of Smart Growth America—delivered a keynote that challenged and inspired. In front of a packed audience of planners, community advocates, and developers, Osborne made one thing clear: transformative change starts locally.

In this report, New Jersey Future analyzed housing affordability in each New Jersey municipality, to see where households headed by someone 65 or older have high housing costs. The places where housing cost burden is greatest fall into two groups: towns that are expensive for everyone, and towns that are dominated by larger, single-family housing stock. December 2015.
An interim report, three years after Hurricane Sandy, on New Jersey Future’s groundbreaking local recovery planning manager program, including lessons learned and recommendations. October 2015.

An analysis of household income distributions in the neighborhoods around New Jersey’s transit stations shows that not all station areas offer the benefits of transit access across all income levels. June 2015.

2016 Smart Growth Awards: Alfred C. Koeppe, business leader and champion for economic development in New Jersey, is the recipient of the 2016 Cary Edwards Leadership Award.

March 19, 2014 — A research report recently released by New Jersey Future, Creating Places to Age in New Jersey, evaluates municipalities’ land-use patterns based on how well designed they are to accommodate the changing mobility needs of an aging population.
See all New Jersey Future Blog posts and articles in this category »
Reports, Presentations and Testimony
- 03/17/2025: NJF Testimony on S1408 - Conversion of Commercial Properties to Mixed-Use Areas with Affordable Housing
- Creating Great Places to Age: Aging-Friendly Land-Use Implementation Plan for the Village of Ridgewood (Aug. 2020)
- 03/22/2019: Comments on Executive Order 23 Draft Guidance
- 02/14/2019: Testimony on A2697-S1783
- Creating Great Places to Age: Aging-Friendly Land-use Assessment For the Village of Ridgewood (Aug. 2018)
- Creating Great Places to Age: Land Use Analysis of Aging Friendliness (Westwood Borough, July 2018)
- Rename to: Creating Great Places to Age: Land Use Analysis of Aging Friendliness (Teaneck, Feb. 2019)
- APA Conference Places To Age Best Practices
- New Jersey Future Demographic Trends by Age September 2017
- New-Jersey-Future-Assessment-of-the-NJLIHTC-program
- New Jersey Future Assessing the Federal Approach to Identifying Gentrification 08-16 (Intern Report)
- New Jersey Future 2017 Gubernatorial Platform
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Maurice River 05-2015
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Commercial 12-2015
- League of Municipalities Article on Aging in Community April 2016
- Final Jersey City to Proacitvely Test Water Supply Press Release %282%29
- New Jersey Future Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities
- Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities Housing Cost-Burden Municipal Data by Municipality
- Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities Housing Cost-Burden Municipal Data by Cost Burden Rank
- NJFuture-In-Deep-10-15-WEB
- Case Study: Paterson
- Case Study: Jersey City
- Case Study: Hoboken
- Case Study: Camden
- Ripple Effects
- Van Abs: Water Infrastructure in New Jersey's CSO Cities
- Creating Great Places To Age in New Jersey
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey Municipal Best Practices
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey municipal data
- Creating Places To Age Bergen-Passaic Supplement
- 03/19/2013: New Jersey Future CDBG-DR comments
- Targeting Transit -- New Jersey Future
- 05-2009 Smart Housing Incentives Act - Summary
- Route 1 Planning Through Partnerships
- 06/17/2011: Amicus brief: Mount Laurel
- Race to the Middle: The Homogenization of New Jersey's Population Density
- Realistic Opportunity? The Distribution of Affordable Housing and Jobs in New Jersey
- Getting to Work 11-08