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===Mount Laurel Decision=== The [[Mount Laurel Decision]] is a judicial interpretation of the [[New Jersey State Constitution]] that requires municipalities to use their zoning powers in an affirmative manner to provide a realistic opportunity for the production of housing affordable to low and moderate-income households. The decision was a result of a lawsuit brought against the town by the [[N.A.A.C.P.]] that was decided by the [[New Jersey Supreme Court]] in 1975 and reaffirmed in a subsequent decision in 1983.<ref>[http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/mtlaurel/aboutmtlaurel.php History of Mount Laurel Decisions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823141649/http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/mtlaurel/aboutmtlaurel.php |date=2009-08-23 }}, Accessed August 22, 2009.</ref> The history behind this, and the story leading to the decision was highlighted in ''Our Town'', a book by [[David L. Kirp]].<ref name="Kirp">{{cite book | last = Kirp | first = David L. | author-link = David L. Kirp | title = Our Town | publisher = [[Springer-Verlag]] | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-8135-2253-6 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/ourtownracehousi00kirp }}</ref> Mount Laurel was a small, rural farming community until it was hit with massive suburban growth from Philadelphia in the later 1960s. In 1970, at a meeting about a proposal for taxpayer subsidized housing held at an all-black church in Mount Laurel, Mayor Bill Haines summed up the [[NIMBY]]ist perspective by saying: "If you people can't afford to live in our town, then you'll just have to leave."<ref name="Kirp"/>{{page needed|date=January 2021}} Even though the black families in Mount Laurel were not from urban ghettos and were not involved in gang activity, the new suburban influx thought otherwise, and significantly delayed the creation of tax-payer subsidized housing areas, citing concerns of gang activity and an influx of inner-city criminals. Example comments from town meetings against forced construction of housing projects included "...we need this like Custer needed more Indians..."; "...it's reverse discrimination..."; "...we lived in this in South Philly and Newark...", and that the housing would be a "...breeding ground for violent crime and drug abuse..."<ref name="Kirp"/>{{page needed|date=January 2021}} As time went on, Mount Laurel did in fact experience high crime rates, and today is more dangerous than 83% of every other town and city of all sizes in the State of New Jersey, and more dangerous than 82% of all other U.S. cities. The chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Mount Laurel is 1 in 46. Based on FBI crime data, the chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Mount Laurel - such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder - is 1 in 540. This equates to a rate of 2 per one thousand inhabitants. And Mount Laurel's rate for property crime is 20 per one thousand population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mount Laurel, 08054 Crime Rates and Crime Statistics - NeighborhoodScout |url=https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/mount-laurel/crime#description |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=www.neighborhoodscout.com}}</ref> Leading advocate in favor of taxpayer subsidized housing [[Ethel Lawrence]], a black resident who lived her life in Mount Laurel, had her house repeatedly vandalized.<ref>[http://www.njba.org/njbaInfo/legendsHousing.asp Tribute to Ethel Robinson Lawrence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223161608/http://www.njba.org/njbaInfo/legendsHousing.asp |date=2008-02-23 }} "Ethel was the second of eight children born to Mary and Leslie Robinson. At the time, Mount Laurel, in Burlington County, was a rural enclave of farms. Most residents were white, but there was a small black population. Ethel Lawrence was among them. The family resided in Mount Laurel for over six generations." Accessed March 14, 2008.</ref><ref>Kirp, David L. (2000), ''Almost Home: America's love-hate relationship with community'', Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|0-691-09517-5}}, p. 79: "Ethel Lawrence and Mary Robinson were sure that the township council would go along. After all, Mount Laurel was their town too and had been for generations." {{page needed|date=January 2021}}</ref> Although the court ruled in favor of creating taxpayer subsidized housing, residents did manage to delay the process for decades.<ref name="Kirp" />{{page needed|date=January 2021}}
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