Bayonne City Council on June 11, 2025 unanimously endorsed the city's fourth-round housing element and fair-share plan and authorized submission of an attached draft spending plan and rehabilitation manual to the statewide affordable housing dispute-resolution program.

The endorsement, presented by affordable-housing counsel Derek Orth, moves the draft spending plan into the two-month state review and objection period required under the amended New Jersey Fair Housing Act. Orth told the council the plan is structured to preserve the city's affordable housing trust fund and to document how the city intends to commit funds so they are not swept into the state's broader trust.

Why it matters: Orth said the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) determined Bayonne's rehabilitation obligation for the fourth round is 749 units. He said Bayonne has already completed roughly 982 rehabs since 2020 and that the city's affordable housing trust fund now holds about $15,000,000 in nonresidential development fees. The spending plan, still in draft form, establishes broad spending buckets and lists specific, currently identified expenditures so the city can retain those dollars and spend them on qualifying affordable-housing activities.

Key details and council concerns
- Allocation highlights: Orth named the Bayonne Family Community Center SRO rehabilitation as a project with approximately $2,500,000 proposed for work on that building. He also said roughly $3.2'$3.3 million is proposed for the community center project and about $2 million for rehabs overseen by the Bayonne Housing Authority; the remainder remains in general-purpose buckets for future projects and administrative costs.
- Program design: Orth said the plan anticipates using the housing authority to administer small-building rehabs (owner-occupied and 1'6-unit buildings) and expects forgivable grants with a 10-year recapture ladder tied to resale restrictions and means-tested eligibility for applicants.
- Process: If the council endorses the housing element and submits the draft spending plan, Orth will file the package with the statewide affordable housing dispute-resolution program; there is an approximately two-month window for any objections before program/court review and finalization.

Council members emphasized the endorsement is of the housing element and the draft spending plan as submitted, not final approval of each expenditure. Several councilmembers said they had not received the full draft exhibits in time for detailed review and asked for explicit line-item allocations and program qualification criteria before final project-level spending. Orth and planning staff said a fuller document would be circulated to the clerk and to council members and that Orth will return with a finalized spending plan and any required implementing agreements.

Votes and next steps
The council voted unanimously to endorse the housing element and to authorize submission of the draft spending plan and rehab manual for state review. The council reported there were no public speakers. Orth will submit the draft to the statewide affordable housing dispute-resolution program; staff said they will return to the council for specific authorizations when individual projects or funding agreements are proposed.

Attribution and key quotes
- Derek Orth, Bayonne's special affordable housing counsel: "What I'm requesting your approval tonight is an endorsement of your fourth round housing element and fair share plan." He also said, "We have allocated about $2,500,000 to fund that rehab work there," referring to the Bayonne Family Community Center SRO.
- A council member: "Do we have a copy of the plan in and of itself that we will see the allocation of the funds to each of those individual projects?" Council members repeatedly requested fuller documentation and a timetable for returning with detailed allocations.

Context and background
The fourth-round framework was established by a change in state law and updated administrative guidance this cycle; municipalities that opt into the program must declare their obligations and submit a spending plan and supporting exhibits to the statewide dispute-resolution program. Bayonne is classified as a Qualified Urban Aid Municipality and therefore carries a rehabilitation obligation rather than a new-construction obligation. The city's affordable housing trust fund is made up largely of nonresidential development fees imposed by state statute and must be spent on qualifying affordable-housing activities.

The meeting closed after the vote; council members directed staff to provide complete draft documents and to return with final spending-plan exhibits and any project-specific resolutions when funding is proposed.