New Jersey has a legal mandate known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which incentivizes low-cost housing production. The mandate has led to integration in public schools — when it has been implemented. Many towns have ignored or found loopholes around it.
issued by the state education department. Housing advocates say the township is a model for the rest of the state because of its embrace of a set of nearly half-century old court rulings mandating affordable housing.Ed Murray for Gothamist
A Gothamist analysis found 90% of towns that used the agreements to offload their affordable housing obligations to communities outside their borders currently send their students to schools that are whiter than the state average. Four-fifths of the towns that used the loophole sent their kids to schools that had more white students than nonwhite. Gothamist also found that almost all the towns that used the agreements have fewer students receiving free or reduced lunch than the state average.
“We were the first stop north for freedom for a lot of people who were enslaved. And there were these very strong communities,” Gordon said. “As suburbanization, white flight started to happen in the ’50s and ’60s, a lot of those communities became targeted for development.” But lawmakers also created regional contribution agreements, which let towns transfer as much as half their obligations — along with funding — to cities.
But the state also added new clusters of segregation: the number of districts where 80% or more of students are Hispanic more than tripled in the last 20 years. Additionally, about four in 10 schools in New Jersey had some level of segregation, defined as being made up of at least 80% of one race or ethnicity or a combination of nonwhite groups, Spotlight found.
It is, however, one the 121 municipalities that offloaded some of their affordable housing obligations to other towns through regional contribution agreements. But Franklin only transferred a small portion of its obligation — 29 units — to nearby Perth Amboy, according to data provided by Fair Share Housing. It largely met the rest of its obligations within its borders, township officials said.
Jaiden Gourdine, a rising junior at Franklin High School, said he notices the school’s diversity when he plays sports against other teams. Even as enforcement stopped, affordable housing construction in Franklin continued. Township officials approved projects and rezoned land to accommodate higher densities.
“Franklin has been one of the best towns in the state in terms of how it's met its obligation,” Gordon said. “I think it's had a really consistent track record of building a range of different ways of doing affordable housing and doing it in a way that is good planning and that has had a real impact for a lot of families' lives.”
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