The Mount Laurel Doctrine has led to the development of over 40,000 affordable housing units outside New Jersey’s racially and economically-segregated urban centers.
Fair Share Housing Center fights to defend the rights of New Jersey’s poor by monitoring, enforcing and expanding the Mount Laurel Doctrine.
New Jersey has built more affordable housing per capita in high-opportunity communities near great schools and good jobs than any other state in the nation thanks in large part to the Mount Laurel Doctrine. This landmark case prohibits towns from discriminating against the poor through exclusionary zoning and requires all 566 municipalities to provide their fair share of the region’s need for affordable housing. Read more…
In 2008, the Legislature enacted a sweeping set of amendments to New Jersey’s Fair Housing Act. The recently-enacted law put an end to a reprehensible practice called Regional Contribution Agreements, which allowed wealthy towns to transfer half of their “fair share” housing obligations to NJ’s poorest cities. Read more…
Locating affordable homes near public transportation can help cut costs for low-income workers, who spend more on transportation than any other need except housing. But that’s not the only benefit to building more affordable housing near transit in NJ, which boasts the most developed public transportation system in the nation. Read more…
FSHC pioneered the strongest requirements in the country for regional planning entities to include affordable housing in their planning. Our work to implement these victories will provide a national model on how to bring together competing interest and build consensus among state and local leaders on how to best protect the environment and meet the housing needs of the poor. Read more…
