The trust, which was supposed to use $200 million to create 10,000 housing units for disabled and homeless people, is now nearly broke and only expected to create 2,000 units Watch video
State Sen. Dick Codey at the Statehouse in Trenton in a January photo. Codey is asking for information into how the state spent $168 million from the Special Needs Housing Trust Fund.TRENTON — Sen. Richard Codey wants to see the receipts.
The former governor Thursday called for the state’s Department of Community Affairs to account for how it spent $168 million from the Special Needs Housing Trust Fund, which he signed into law in 2005.
The action follows a report in The Star-Ledger last month that found the trust, which was supposed to use $200 million to create 10,000 housing units for disabled and homeless people, is now nearly broke and only expected to create 2,000 units.
"To only get maybe a couple thousand," Codey said, "it just doesn’t add up."
Codey (D-Essex) said he had no evidence of mishandling or misappropriation of the money, but he wants a fuller understanding of how the program was managed.
"I am heartened by the fact the state has been able to create these new homes, however, that is far below the actual need for our state’s developmentally disabled and mentally ill," he wrote in a letter to Anthony Marchetta, executive director of the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, which managed the trust.
"Specifically, I would like to know how, if at all, that money was leveraged to maximize its full potential," Codey continued in the letter, which The Star-Ledger obtained. "It was my hope at the time that through the right mixture of state and federal funds, we would be able to strive for the goal of 10,000 new units for this sector of our society."
Lori Grifa, the state’s community affairs commissioner, said the 10,000 units was always too optimistic a goal. Several special-needs advocates seconded that opinion and also pointed to the bad economy as a reason the trust failed to meet its objective.
"Senator Codey has admitted to me that he thought the goals of the Special Needs Housing Trust Fund were overly optimistic," Grifa said in an e-mail. "We cannot offer insight into the basis for the senator’s stated goals when the trust fund was created.
"The reality is that $200 million does not produce 10,000 units, unless they can be produced for $20,000 per unit, which is an impossibility in New Jersey," Grifa continued. "We are very proud of what the HMFA has produced, and we have many other worthy projects that will use the remaining funds in an appropriate way."
Codey Thursday said the reality that 10,000 units couldn’t be constructed for $200 million "doesn’t mitigate the fact that too few units have been built so far."
"We admit we were overly optimistic," he said. "We just want an accounting. We’re not pointing fingers at the Christie administration, the Corzine administration or anyone else."
Grifa earlier this week announced a program to move 600 developmentally disabled people into renovated homes. That move, made in cooperation with the state Department of Human Services, is meant to shorten a state-run housing list that includes thousands of developmentally disabled people, some of whom have been waiting more than a decade.
"In light of the announcement," Codey wrote in his letter, "I believe information into how the money in the fund was used to date will be useful."