NJ opens first green affordable housing. There might not be more like it.

Khadijah Smith, a single mom from Union County, New Jersey, her daughter Kennedy and her son Avery have faced housing insecurity for years. But after being selected from thousands of applicants in an affordable housing lottery, the Smiths are moving into a brand new affordably priced three-bedroom apartment in the Morris County community of Madison Borough.

“I went from a homeless shelter,” she said. “We come from that and I'm very grateful that we no longer have to go back there.”

All the appliances in their new home are electric and powered by their own solar panel system. The apartment's design helps it keep hot air in during the winter, and keep air-conditioned air from escaping in the summer. Along with an affordable rent, the family’s monthly energy bill should be just a few dollars.

“I'm going to do a praise dance,” Smith said, who looks forward to getting the keys on June 15.

The 44-unit project at the Forum complex took 10 years to complete, and is New Jersey’s first multifamily and fully energy efficient affordable housing development. The money to equip these low-priced units with solar panels and state-of-the-art, energy-efficient appliances and other features was made possible by more than $2 million in funding from Congress.

But replicating the development could prove difficult in the years ahead. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year includes more than $26 billion in cuts to housing and community development programs that in part help fund projects like the one in Madison. That’s making developers like Rich Martoglio, whose company RPM built the Forum, uneasy about how they’re going to fund similar projects.

“I don't think anyone knows for sure what's going to happen. I think that's one of the things that's killing us all now is all this uncertainty,” Martoglio told Gothamist.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, whose 11th Congressional District includes Madison, secured funding for the Forum in 2023. Sherill, who leads polls in a crowded Democratic primary race for governor, agreed that it’s “unclear” whether more federal money will be available for affordable housing projects in the near future.

“What's so upsetting about what's going on right now is some of the very programs that created the most opportunity or lifted people up are just being targeted,” Sherrill said. “There’s not a lot of thoughtfulness going on in Washington for how we grow opportunity and make a more resilient country.”

Ultimately, it will be up to Congress whether to enact Trump’s steep budget cuts when it votes on a budget in September.

New Jersey is short 200,000 low-priced homes for low-income families, according to experts. And state officials have set a goal of constructing or repairing more than 140,000 affordable homes by 2035.

Republican state Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, whose party has been at odds with Gov. Phil Murphy and the Democratic majority over its affordable housing legislative action, said New Jersey will need to get more creative and efficient so towns don’t take 10 years to build 44-unit projects.

“Unfortunately, we know in New Jersey that nothing moves quickly. We've got to do whatever we need to do to reduce the regulation, reduce the red tape to get these units built much quicker,” he said.