Working for Smart Growth:
More Livable Places and Open Spaces

 

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.

New Jersey Future Blog
Navigating New Jersey’s REAL Rules

“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.

When Water Holds Back Housing: What to Expect from New Jersey’s New State Fiscal Year 2026 Intended Use Plans

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.

Farewell Spotlight: Chris Sturm Retires After 23 Years of Championing a Better New Jersey

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 Changing Face: Planning for Intergenerational Households in a Diverse State

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.

Planning with Purpose: Beth Osborne Calls for Local Leadership and Smart Coalitions

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.

Articles and Stories
Creating Places To Age: Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities

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.

In Deep: Helping Sandy-Affected Communities Address Vulnerability and Confront Risk

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.

OFF TRACK? An Assessment of Mixed-Income Housing around New Jersey’s Transit Stations

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.

Business Leader and Champion for Economic Development Wins Leadership Award

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.

New Jersey Future Op-Ed Button
Many Older Residents in New Jersey Live in Aging-Unfriendly Places

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

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