We’re not exactly packed in like sardines, but it’s close. It’s been noted that New Jersey has the highest population density of any state in the Union. The heavy property taxes and unavoidable traffic on major Garden State highways constantly confirm this.
However, in the last decade overcrowding has also taken on another aspect: heavy immigration has caused an increase in the number of inhabitants in single-family homes, particularly in towns and cities seeking growth. In the state capital people have created a nickname for the row houses rented to groups of Hispanic immigrants who typically take turns at working odd jobs: “Guatemala motels.”
“If you feel you’re ‘overcrowded’ in New Jersey, you have a point,” says James Hughes, dean at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. Following more than half a century of decline, overcrowding in American homes is on a rapid increase. According to the data collected in the 2000 census, 6.1 million American homes are considered to be crowded, with an increase of 36 percent since 1990. Houses are considered “crowded” if they have 1.5 people or more per room, with the exception of bathrooms, hallways, and closets.
However, the number of “crowded” homes could be greater than the amount stated by the census. According to recently released government calculations, the census “forgot” to register about 1.1 million children, mainly blacks and Hispanics in urban areas.
In New Jersey, the census did not register over 96,000 inhabitants, mostly among minority groups in urban areas. It’s as if the entire population of Woodbridge was not taken into account.
The most obvious problems of overcrowding are simple issues with the quality of life, says Joseph Bellina, borough administrator of the town of Freehold in central New Jersey. Between 1990 and 2000, the Latin American population of Freehold more than doubled, and local authorities received complaints of noise, crowded apartments, and groups of seasonal workers waiting for job offers along Throckmorton Street. “We are reacting to calls of alarm from the inhabitants of Freehold,” added Bellina. “These conditions have literally besieged our little town.”
Bellina receives complaints of squalor and of overflowing sewer systems due to the large numbers of inhabitants in single homes. Landlords were denounced for converting cellars and attics into bedrooms. Since last June, the local government has been confronting overcrowding problems, and collected over $36,000 in fines, after charging two new local police officers with the task of enforcing housing ordinances. For the first infraction, the town charges a fine of $1,250, and for each successive offense the fine increases by $2,500. Overcrowding also manifests itself in many other parts of the country that are home to large numbers of immigrants. In Virginia, landlords are prohibited from converting front lawns into parking for the residents. In one town in the state of Washington, after it was discovered that about 20 immigrants were living in one house and that this tendency was spreading, the city’s master plan was revised to limit the number of residents in a single house to no more than eight (unrelated to one another).
Bellina notes that a limit on overcrowding is not only a necessity for the “quality of life” of longstanding residents, but also presents a security problem for people who live in precarious situations.
Champions of immigrant rights realize that employers and landlords know that immigrants are often here illegally and can easily be deported, and those who are inclined to exploit the situation profit off of it.
Cecilia Muñoz, vice-president of the National Council of La Raza, a civil rights organization in Washington, affirms that new immigrants distrust the police. “Many of them are afraid of going to the authorities, because they don’t know whether the authorities will take their side,” says Muñoz, adding that certain communities have resorted to new regulatory plans that are half “illegal” to force Latin Americans to move elsewhere. “This has really become a new form of housing discrimination,” said the advocate, “though often the large families of Hispanic immigrants who live together to save money do not, in reality, violate any ordinance.”
Nonetheless, some local authorities affirm that overcrowding has potentially damaging consequences for public finances. Local administrations complain of fiscal pressures when they offer services to a family of 12 who pay the same property taxes as a family of four.
The problem is not limited to urban areas. In West Windsor, which prides itself on having the best schools in the state and the largest parcels of land around residences, many families accommodate recently immigrated relatives in their homes. Sam Surtees, director of community development for the town, says, “You see that members of the family—aunts, uncles, young people—live together until they find work, and then they become independent.” Aside from quality of life issues—such as terrible traffic and pollution—Surtees reports that in many cases families consider that they are paying “for others” with their high property taxes, in terms of schools and local services. “The property taxes set aside for schools don’t cover more than one student,” says Surtees, “and in many cases they aren’t even enough for that.”
