State Current Priority

State Budget Priorities

Contact the Governor and your State legislators to express your commitment to preserving the social safety net for our neighbors.

Your message should include:

1. Preserve General Assistance, $140 per month to our most vulnerable neighbors.
2. No cuts to EITC, which constitute a tax-increase to working people.
3. No cuts to our Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
4. Our need for a State housing plan -- without it we will not be able to qualify for many Federal housing grants.

State Policy priorities

Contact the Commissioners of Human Services, Jennifer Velez, and the Commissioner of Community Affairs, Lori Grifa, to express your support for the policy recommendations of the NJ Advocacy Network to End Homelessness.

Your message should highlight:

1. Our need for a single statewide system to end homelessness, based on a uniform assessment of need.
2. The importance of adopting national best practice models --Housing First, Rapid Rehousing, Targeted Prevention -- which are focused on preventing and ending homelessness, not managing it.
3. Our priority should be targeting resources for housing and services to those with the most intense need for them.

NJ Advocacy Network to End Homelessness

• State Policy - Adopted January, 2010
• Essential Building Blocks of a New System
• Recommendations to move to a NJ policy focused on “ending homelessness”

NJ Affordable Housing Trust Fund

• Save New Jersey’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund

Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey

• Seven Safety Net Restoration Priorities

Mercer County Human Services Advisory Council

• Mercer County Human Services Advisory Council Budget Testimony April 19, 2010