Lawmakers and advocates in New Jersey have just weeks to pass bills they say will help close the generational wealth gap for Blacks and Latinos in the state — or punt the matter to a new Legislature.
The Fair Appraisals Act comprises two bills targeting home appraisal discrimination — when an appraiser unfairly assigns a lower value to a home based on protected characteristics like race, gender or religion of the owner.
Those bills passed the state Senate earlier this month. But some of the bills’ supporters fear if they don’t make it through the state Assembly and get Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature before the current legislative session ends Jan. 9, it could be months or years before they’re considered again.
“If we go to the new legislative session, where the clock restarts and the bill has to be reintroduced, we have to find new cosponsors. We have a new Assembly coming in with over a dozen new members. So there’s a re-education component as well,” said Matthew Hersh, director of policy and advocacy at the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.
Both bills still need hearings in the Assembly’s Housing committee and Regulated Professions committee before the chamber votes on them; neither has yet been scheduled. Housing Committee Chair Yvonne Lopez’s office says it’s committed to reviewing the bill “in the new session,” but declined to clarify if that means a vote this session is off the table.
The Assembly is scheduled to meet three more times before the legislative session ends Jan. 9.
State Sen. Nellie Pou, a Democrat from Paterson and the legislation’s prime sponsor, said the Senate “certainly made it a point of getting it through” this month before the end of the “lame-duck” session — the period between an election and the start of a new legislative calendar year, when some new legislators take office. “I’m hoping that the Assembly will continue to do that as well,” she said.
Under one of the bills, appraisers…
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