I read your article by Vincent Xu concerning the Affordable Housing (the News, July 10). The article was pretty good. Unfortunately, he stated something that makes a wrong impression about the costs to current residents who live in developments with Mt. Laurel units. I know, because I live in a condo that has Mt. Laurel housing units.
In the article, Mr. Xu states: “Another misconception concerns who pays for the low and moderate income housing. Jacobsohn notes that funding for affordable housing construction is paid for by the housing developers, not by current residents.”
This might give the perception that residents do not bear any costs for the Mt. Laurel units. But this is entirely false. Mt. Laurel units pay heavily discounted HSA dues at a rate of around one-third the rate of the conventional units. This was placed in the condo By-Laws, probably as part of an agreement when the condos were built. Therefore, current residents bear a heavy cost of this by paying higher dues to make up for this discount.
Currently, there is no funding method available (at least in Plainsboro) to make up for these costs. Our HSA has never received any funding for our Mt. Laurel units.
Don Meyer
Plainsboro
