NJ Biz OpEd Feature: Newark housing policy should put Newarkers first
Written for NJBiz by Calvin Souder
I grew up in Newark, and I built my business here. My firm handles closings, redevelopment agreements, land-use applications, and housing-authority matters. I have pent my career in rooms where decisions determine whether a vacant block becomes homes, storefronts, jobs, and tax revenue — or remains fenced off beneath a weathered rendering.
I hire here, pay taxes here, and have bet my livelihood on Newark being stronger in 20 years than it is today.
When Mayor Ras Baraka says “Newark for Newarkers,” I hear a standard worth fighting for. I hear a promise that the people who stayed, worked, raised families, paid taxes and believed in this city should have a real stake in its future. The question is how to make that promise real through housing policy.
The mayor is right to challenge an affordability standard that does not reflect Newark’s reality. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development places Newark in a four-county region with a median household income near $138,400, while Newark’s own median household income is roughly $52,000. A unit deemed affordable under that regional formula can still be out of reach for the Newark families it is meant to serve.
For the whole city
“Newark for Newarkers” must hold the whole city. It must include the home-health aide with a voucher, the multigenerational family earning $52,000, the teacher and sanitation supervisor, the union electrician, the nurse, the small-business owner, and the young person who grew up here and wants to remain here.
A young person raised on Dayton Street should be able to build a career, move into a downtown apartment or buy a home near Washington Park and remain a Newarker. A family still on Dayton Street should have a stable lease, safe conditions, protection from displacement, and a meaningful chance to move forward. That is what equity looks like: security for people with the least, mobility for working families, and a path to ownership and wealth that remains in Newark.
Some of Newark’s most loyal people now live in Maplewood, South Orange, West Orange, Belleville and Union. They still return for church, family gatherings, Ironbound dinners and the relationships that have never left Newark. Many would return permanently if the city offered homes near transit, parks, restaurants, retail and active streets — places where they can raise children, support local businesses and build a future.
Their return should be part of the city’s strategy. When Newarkers can come home, they bring purchasing power, savings, professional networks, families and investment back with them. They help sustain neighborhood businesses, strengthen the tax base, fill storefronts, and create demand for services and amenities that benefit entire communities.
Projects on hold
That opportunity is being held up by projects already approved but still frozen.
The blocks around Broad Street, Washington Street, and the former Bears Stadium site could become a connected downtown neighborhood with thousands of homes within walking distance of Newark Penn Station, NJPAC, offices, schools, restaurants and public space.
CitiSquare at the former Bears Stadium site was approved for 4,200 apartments across 11 towers. Skyline Towers at 520 Broad St. was approved for 2,438 apartments, including 437 affordable homes. Halo at 289–301 Washington St. was planned for 1,075 apartments, with 775 homes still unbuilt.
These are not abstract unit counts. They are homes that could allow a Newark teacher now living in Union to return. They are apartments for a young Newark couple trying to form a household near family. They are customers for a Newark-owned café, daycare, market, salon or professional office. They are opportunities for Newark residents to live near transit and jobs rather than being pushed farther from both.
They also represent a foundation for wealth. When people who grew up in Newark have enough housing choices to stay or return, they can spend, invest, start businesses, build credit, save for down payments and eventually own property without severing their connection to the city.
Across Newark, nearly 11,000 approved homes have not broken ground and more than 11,700 are approved when Halo’s unbuilt phases are included. At the current 20% affordability requirement, those stalled approvals contain roughly 2,200 deed-restricted affordable apartments. Those homes could serve Newark residents for decades, but an approved unit is not a home until it is financed, built and occupied.
A call to action
Mayor Baraka’s call for Newark for Newarkers should therefore be a call to move approvals into construction. It should mean affordability for households with the lowest incomes through vouchers, public housing, permanent supportive housing, tenant protections, code enforcement and targeted public subsidy. It should also mean unlocking housing for working families and returning Newarkers who need an attainable place to live before they can contribute their income, skills and investment to the city.
Newark does not need to choose between protecting residents and building housing. It needs deeply affordable homes for households earning under $30,000, stable housing for working families, mixed-income housing that retains residents as they advance, and a real path from renting to ownership.
Newark does not need to choose between protecting residents and building housing.
Mayor Baraka, the Council, the Housing Authority, community development corporations, tenant organizations, neighborhood associations, trades, lenders, state financing agencies and developers should come together with the numbers on the table. They should produce an independent preliminary assessment; income bands that match Newark households while preserving financing eligibility; subsidies and vouchers targeted to households earning under $30,000; and abatements conditioned on financing, groundbreaking, and delivery.
They should also provide a public, project-by-project accounting of why nearly 11,000 approved homes remain stalled — and a plan to get viable projects built.
“Newark for Newarkers” cannot stop at a slogan or an approval stamp. It must mean that the families who stayed can remain, that young Newarkers can build their futures here, and that the Newarkers who left can come home without being priced out.
Mayor Baraka and the Council should act now: protect residents with the deepest needs, unlock the approvals already granted, and hold every project receiving public support accountable for delivering homes, businesses, and stable neighborhoods.
Calvin W. Souder is the founding partner of Souder Law Group in Newark, where his practice covers commercial and residential real estate, redevelopment agreements, land-use applications, and housing-authority matters. He grew up in Newark and built his firm in the city.
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