SENATE COMMUNITY AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 219
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MARCH 5, 2026
The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 219.
As amended and reported, this bill supplements the "Law Against Discrimination," P.L.1945, c.169 (C.10:5-1 et seq.), to establish guidelines for determining the creditworthiness of applicants seeking to rent affordable housing units. Except in the specific circumstances provided in the bill, the bill prohibits landlords from considering credit scores and other risk scores or assessments when determining the creditworthiness of a rental housing applicant who is the holder of a State or federal tenant-based housing subsidy. The bill provides that the consideration of negative credit history for these rental housing applicants are only permitted if the tenant has, within the previous three years and while in receipt of a rental subsidy, failed on two or more occasions to pay the unsubsidized tenant share of the monthly rent in accordance with a rental agreement. Prior to making the decision to deny an applicant, the bill requires the landlord to conduct an individualized assessment of the specific facts and circumstances surrounding the failures to pay. After a review of the circumstances, the holder of the State or federal tenant-based housing subsidy is to be deemed creditworthy if the tenant has a bona fide reason for late rental payments.
Regarding other applicants for affordable rental housing who do not hold State or federal tenant-based housing subsidies, the bill permits the landlord to assess the applicant’s creditworthiness if the landlord also conducts an individualized assessment of the applicant’s income, employment, payment, and credit history. The individualized assessment includes, at a minimum, an evaluation of several factors enumerated in the bill that significantly affect a household’s finances.
Additionally, the bill requires that, for the purposes of evaluating the creditworthiness of an affordable housing applicant, there is to be a rebuttable presumption that the applicant household is creditworthy under certain circumstances enumerated in the bill. An affordable housing applicant who has completed a credit counseling or debt management course certified by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) would also be presumed creditworthy, provided that the applicant household has demonstrated an ability to pay rent.
The bill further directs that, if a landlord denies a rental housing application from an affordable housing applicant, approves an application with conditions that exceed reasonable conditions routinely imposed upon a prospective tenant, or takes any other adverse action, then the landlord is required to provide a written notice of the adverse action to the applicant. The adverse action notice is to disclose any screening information about the applicant accessed by the landlord, and append any screening report that the landlord accessed. The adverse action notice is to include the findings as to each of the factors that are required for consideration in the individualized assessment. An adverse action notice that does not include a specific finding as to each factor or that does not consider the facts and circumstances relevant to the particular applicant is to be deemed presumptively invalid and is not to be considered to constitute a lawful basis upon which to take adverse action against an applicant. The bill requires the notices to be printed in both the English and Spanish languages and given to the applicants. In any county in which the Language Access Plan of the DCA indicates that five percent or more of the residents’ primary language is any language other than English or Spanish, all written notices in that county are also to be printed in that additional language.
The bill requires each landlord that denies, or takes any adverse action against, any applicant for creditworthiness reasons to submit to the Attorney General, on an annual basis, a report that contains certain information enumerated in the bill for the preceding 12-month reporting period:
The bill allows a person claiming to be aggrieved pursuant to the provisions of the bill to file a complaint or action with the Division on Civil Rights in the Department of Law and Public Safety, or in the Superior Court of New Jersey, alleging a violation of the "Law Against Discrimination," P.L.1945, c.169 (C.10:5-1 et seq.). Following the receipt of a complaint the Director of the Division on Civil Rights is authorized by the bill to prohibit the landlord from renting out the housing unit that the claimant applied for, pending the investigation of the claim.
The bill directs the Attorney General, and in consultation with the Commissioner of Community Affairs, to adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the bill on or before the first day of the third month next following enactment of the bill.
This bill was prefiled for introduction in the
2026-2027 session pending technical review. As reported, the bill includes the
changes required by technical review, which has been performed.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amended the bill to:
· remove an evaluation of the health history of an applicant and the applicant’s family from an individualized assessment of income; and
· add proof of health insurance coverage of the applicant and applicant’s family to the assessment.