The Truth About COAH: A Disingenuous Return to a Broken System Will Leave NJ Residents in a Housing Crisis November 4th, 2022   By Esmé Devenney  In September, a handful of towns sued Governor Murphy and then testified at an Assembly Housing Committee hearing calling for the return of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Those who want to return to the broken COAH system are making that demand for two reasons: they seek to avoid their constitutional affordable housing obligations and uphold residential segregation. New Jersey has one of the most robust civil rights frameworks in the country—the Mount

A History of the Mount Laurel Doctrine  October 28th, 2022   By Martina Manicastri In 1975, Black and Latino community organizers in South Jersey won a landmark civil rights case against Mount Laurel Township that to this day, still constitutes one of the most progressive housing laws in the nation. As the rise of suburbia prompted a national trend of white flight and gentrification, white people left the cities of Camden and Philadelphia in favor of more suburban towns, like Mount Laurel Township. In Mount Laurel, residents of the Township’s historic Black neighborhood suddenly found themselves priced out of generational

Overburdened Communities Bear the Brunt of Environmental Injustice October 27th, 2022   By Ashley J. Lee Jackson, Mississippi is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last city to suffer the consequences of dangerous and unsafe water. However, it has reminded those who have forgotten about the lack of access to clean drinking water in an alarming number of Black and Latinx communities in our nation.  Black residents make up 82.5% of Jackson’s estimated population of 149,761 people, with 24.5% of residents living in poverty. Most of the city’s residents were provided a boil water notice beginning in

Invocation for Philadelphia City Council – June 9th, 2022 June 15th, 2022   By Rev. Eric Dobson In the spirit of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Compassion, let us pray. The conscious of Life, gods of many names, be in our hearts and minds as we come together today to pray for our Nation, State and City. We come today as people whose faith has been shaken by the calamities in Buffalo, Uvalde and Philadelphia. Although we mourn for the families that must forever live with failures of our government to act, yet, we remain hopeful that these same lawmakers will

Civil Rights Lawyers Say No to Increasing Law Enforcement Officers to Address Public Safety Concerns May 25th, 2022 Today marks the two-year anniversary since the murder of George Floyd and subsequent community demands for police accountability across the nation and here in New Jersey. But legislation introduced in the wake of Floyd’s murder has yet to move forward in New Jersey. It is within that context that earlier this week, members of the New Jersey Assembly introduced legislation that would require some municipalities, based on population size and crime rates, to hire additional law enforcement officers based on a formula

A Reflection on the Fair Housing Act April 20th, 2022 By Luke Hinrichs, Legal Fellow  In early August of 1966, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and fellow demonstrators were confronted by a white mob of counter-protestors during a march to promote open housing in Marquette Park in Chicago. The counter-protestors grew increasingly violent—throwing rocks, bottles, and bricks—and eventually struck King in the head. These perpetrators of violence were not Southern Segregationists refusing to yield their grip on a Jim Crow society, but rather they were white Northern residents resisting racial justice and the end to housing discrimination — a