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Your Turn In reality, RCAs operate to deny opportunities for good jobs, good schools, and good services to low- and moderate-income families. Religious congregations and organizations throughout the state - working with the New Jersey Regional Coalition- are seeking to abolish RCAs because they have re-segregated New Jersey and worsened problems of poverty. Both the New Jersey Catholic Conference and the General Baptist Convention of New Jersey have passed resolutions calling for the elimination of RCAs due to the harm they cause. Middletown is a leading trafficker in RCAs, paying $6.9 million to send a total of 375 homes to Asbury Park, Long Branch and Red Bank. In the 1990s, Middletown gained 2,189 jobs. These three receiving towns together lost 1,729 jobs. In 1999, Middletown's family poverty rate was 1.9 percent. The poverty rate in Red Bank was 3.3 times higher, in Long Branch 6.8 times, and in Asbury Park an incredible 15.3 times that of Middletown. In 2000, Middletown schools had 6 percent students from lowincome households; by contrast, the three receiving towns had from 57 to 94 percent. Middletown's RCAs kept 375 families away from its better schools and better jobs. If children in the Asbury Park RCA units had instead moved into affordable housing in Middletown, their test scores would have moved up an average of 15 percentile points.With each RCA,Middletown barred the door of opportunity to another New Jersey family. These RCAs allowed Middletown to avoid its constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing in Middletown, and at the bargain rate of $18,400 per unit. In addition to sticking poorer towns with the obligation to provide homes for only $18,400, Middletown also shifted the infrastructure and school costs of these homes. No wonder Mayor Scharfenberger thinks RCAs are such a great deal! Yet this policy has also made it more difficult for people who have lived and worked in Middletown to stay there as housing costs rise. The mayor would like us to believe that "if we put all of our affordable housing commitment here, you would not see a blade of grass left in Middletown." Yet Middletown's RCAs have gone to towns with much higher densities, with Asbury Park having 9.3 times as many dwelling units per square mile. Dress the arguments up any way you like, the real issue here is segregation of opportunity.
People of faith know that evil hates the light. And as the light shines upon this moral evil of RCAs, people see what harm this policy brings. It is clear that RCAs will not be with us much longer. The courts have forced new COAH rules because for years, too many of our towns have tried to avoid doing their fair share. Instead of shifting its responsibilities and fighting reform, Middletown and other RCA-sending towns should work to make themselves more affordable. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
