Assemblywoman Maureen Rowan is advancing legislation to strengthen oversight of public housing conditions and give residents a direct way to report health, safety, and quality-of-life concerns.
Assembly Bill A4458 would establish a three-year Public Housing Hotline Pilot Program within the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Bureau of Housing Inspection. The legislation cleared the Assembly Housing Committee on May 14.
The proposed program would create a toll-free hotline available 24 hours a day for residents of participating public housing authorities to report concerns about their living conditions. Residents would be able to file complaints anonymously, and the hotline would include live English- and Spanish-speaking operators as well as multilingual voice response options.
“No one should have to live with mold, broken plumbing, pest infestations, or no heat and feel like they have nowhere to turn,” said Assemblywoman Rowan. “This bill would give residents a direct and protected way to report unsafe conditions while helping ensure housing authorities are held accountable for fixing them.”
The legislation was introduced in response to long-standing habitability violations at the Atlantic City Housing Authority, particularly at Stanley Holmes Village. Residents there endured years of unsafe living conditions before federal intervention and a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development takeover in 2025.
Under A4458, the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs would select one housing authority from each of New Jersey’s northern, central, and southern regions to participate in the three-year pilot.
The bill includes a specific requirement for the southern New Jersey participant: the selected housing authority must be one where HUD intervened within the previous five years. That provision is intended to ensure Atlantic City is included in the pilot program.
Beyond providing residents with a direct reporting system, the bill would establish a centralized database of substantiated complaints involving participating housing authorities.
The State would track information, including violations, response times, corrective actions, and patterns of neglect. That information would also be made publicly available online, giving residents and state officials greater visibility into conditions at participating public housing facilities and how reported problems are addressed.
The Department of Community Affairs would be required to submit annual reports to the Governor and Legislature evaluating the pilot program. At the conclusion of the three-year period, the department would issue a final report recommending whether the program should be continued, expanded, or modified.
For Atlantic City residents who have experienced persistent problems in public housing, the legislation is intended to provide another avenue for reporting unsafe conditions and to create greater transparency in how those complaints are handled.
A4458 reflects an effort to apply lessons from conditions experienced at Stanley Holmes Village and to strengthen oversight so that residents have a clear, protected way to make their concerns known.