Veterans’ Housing Initiative Passes NJ Senate again

A bill to expand housing opportunities for veterans has been approved by the New Jersey Senate, but remains on the back burner in the Assembly.

The measure (S-260) would reserve a portion of the tenant-based rental assistance vouchers from the State Rental Assistance Program (SRAP) for grants to veterans.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously in the 2014-2015 Legislative Session, but was never considered in the Assembly. The new session of the Senate approved the bill again this month.

The bill is sponsored by 9th District Republicans Senator Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E. Rumpf and Assemblywoman DiAnne C. Gove. Rumpf and Gove are sponsoring a companion version in the Assembly (A-984) awaiting consideration by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

"Assemblywoman Gove is attempting to get the bill transferred over to the Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs Committee where she sits and that will give her an opportunity to push the bill in that house," said Connors.

Doing so could provide a better opportunity to get the bill out of committee and posted for a full floor vote in the House, explained Connors.

"It is a no-brainer kind-of-bill and it has wide bipartisan support, certainly as evidenced by unanimous passage in the Senate two sessions in a row, and it has bipartisan sponsorship as well," said Connors. He added he plans to assist Gove and Rumpf by reaching out to Senator Jeff Van Drew (D) to try to move the bill along and eventually get it posted and passed in the Assembly.

He noted the bill has the backing of veterans groups.

"Believe it or not, there are still veterans that are essentially living on the streets or homeless, and which is an outrage to think of it, and so the veterans organizations have been fully in support of the bill.

Connors said he is confident they'll get the bill passed in the Assembly. "I think we just may have ran out of time in the last session, based on some other pressing needs in the Legislature at the time, so we have a good head start in the very beginning of the two-year session."

Issues continue to pop up that take precedence over the housing bill, including Atlantic City's financial woes, the nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund and other budgetary items, but Connors said he expects a lot of attention to be drawn to veterans issues.

The state must have a balanced budget in place and enacted by midnight, June 30, 2016, according to Connors. Once that is finalized, he hopes to have the veterans housing bill out of committee and ready for a full Assembly vote by the fall.

Reserving a portion of tenant vouchers through the State Rental Assistance Program for veterans would augment existing state-administered programs, such as the Veterans Transitional Housing Program, known as Veterans Haven, according to Connors.

"The benefit to this program over the existing Veterans Transitional Housing Program is that it would reserve a portion of the funds available for rental assistance for tenant-based rental vouchers to veterans, thereby allowing them the freedom to choose where they reside. Right now it's based on project-based housing. So, if they qualify for a grant under the Veterans Haven, it has to be project-based housing and therefore they don't have a choice of where they're going to live," said Connors.