Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed an executive order in Trenton on Monday directing state agencies to identify state-owned land and property that could be developed into new housing, and she did it with Jamie Ding at her side.
Ding, a Lawrenceville resident who has won 31 consecutive Jeopardy! games, stood beside Sherrill as the governor cast the move as part of a broader push to tackle New Jersey’s housing affordability crisis. Ding described himself as a bureaucrat and a part-time law student at Seton Hall University, and he works as a multifamily and tax credit program administrator at the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.
Sherrill said New Jersey faces a housing affordability crisis because property taxes, home values and selling prices remain some of the highest in the nation. She said low housing stock is helping drive the problem and that the state has a severe shortage of homes and rental units at moderate price points.
That shortage, she said, has hit families saving for a first home, seniors on fixed incomes, workers trying to live near their jobs and young people looking for their first apartment. The executive order is meant to speed housing production by taking inventory of state-owned properties that are sitting vacant or undeveloped.
“We have to make it easier to build more homes, to boost supply and bring prices down,” Sherrill said, adding that she wants to see homes built on empty lots close to transit hubs. “And we’re going to take an inventory of existing housing that’s affordable and make sure that people know how to apply.”
Ding, who has spent recent weeks in the spotlight because of his Jeopardy! run, used the moment to turn back to the subject of housing. “I’m tempted to try to say something really profound and esoteric and I guess here it is — housing is good,” he said.
He said being on Jeopardy! had shown him what a welcoming setting can look like. “One thing I’ve learned from being on ‘Jeopardy!’ … it’s such a hospitable environment that the show creates for its contestants and for its audience and you just feel welcome there,” he said. “And that’s what I really want for everyone — everyone to feel welcome. And here in New Jersey, we’ve done a great job, but this executive order will help make things better, I think.”
The order puts the state on a more active path to finding where housing can be built, and it also signals that Sherrill wants the state to make better use of land it already controls. The unresolved question now is how quickly those properties can be identified, cleared for development and turned into homes that New Jersey residents can actually afford.