50 years of Mount Laurel: Shaping affordable housing

50 years of Mount Laurel: Shaping affordable housing

This week marks 50 years since the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decision, a landmark ruling that established the state’s commitment to affordable housing. The March 1975 decision declared that municipalities could not use zoning laws to exclude lower-income residents, setting a precedent for housing policy nationwide.  The ruling led to decades of legal battles, policy reforms, and the eventual creation of the Council on Affordable Ho…