New Jersey § 40a:12-32

§ 40a:12-32.

The Legislature finds and declares that: a. There exists within this State a serious shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary

dwelling units for persons of limited means, particularly in urban centers such as

Newark, Irvington, Paterson, Trenton and Camden; b. In those same centers in which the housing crisis is most severe, many residential

properties have been acquired by municipalities because of their abandonment or the

failure on the part of their owners to pay property taxes; c. Owing to their abandonment and neglect, these structures are generally unsafe and

unsound, posing a threat to local residents and undermining the stability of entire

neighborhoods; d. The already formidable demands placed upon these governments in attempting to maintain

acceptable levels of municipal service in the face of declining assistance from higher

levels of government are only exacerbated by the financial expense and administrative

burden associated with the upkeep of this obsolescent municipal property; e. Not only does the persistence of this urban ill seriously drain municipal coffers

and undermine the physical and social fabric of our major urban centers, but it also

represents a senseless waste of residential accommodation at a time when affordable

housing is becoming increasingly scarce; f. If municipalities were provided with greater flexibility in disposing of these

municipally-owned residential buildings, they would thereby be assisted in diminishing

the onerous burdens associated with property ownership under these circumstances,

in recycling housing units which are so vital, and finally, in reversing the fortunes

of neighborhoods which exist in the shadow of these abandoned, obsolescent, and unsafe

structures; g. It is therefore in the public interest and a valid public purpose for the Legislature

to allow municipalities the discretion to dispose of these residential properties

for limited consideration, through the establishment of urban homesteading programs,

in order to facilitate their reuse and, equally, to encourage and promote the economic

revitalization of this State's urban centers.