Advocates of affordable housing today said there's proof a law that's unpopular with a lot of Municipal leaders is working holding an event to talk about recent data showing construction has doubled on affordable homes in just the last eight years that's when oversight of this goal was shifted from a dysfunctional state agency over to the courts but is it enough to meet the growing need in this High Cost of Living State Raven Santana reports more than 50 years ago the Jacob's Chapel am Church in Mount Laurel became the center of a lawsuit that led to New Jersey's current affordable housing laws known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine Ethel Lawrence a sixth generation resident of Mount Laurel was the lead plaintiff Ethel Lawrence and her families here didn't have access to low-income housing and uh when Mrs Lawrence um took it to the people and to the church they had a meeting here one day and when the mayor came through here he said you people uh you know really don't belong here is what he was basically saying the case claimed that Mount Laurel zoning laws systematically excluded residents on the basis of race and class by barring multif family or other lower cost homes from being built people who were there didn't want them and that's very much similar to today there are places that our communities are not wanted black and brown folks in 1975 the New Jersey Supreme Court cited in favor of Lawrence it took another decade but that ultimately led to to a law requiring towns to build what's known as their fair share of affordable units mayor Ras Barack ad joined civil rights leaders and housing advocates for a panel discussion on the accomplishments and challenges that remain with affordable housing in towns and cities including Newark I've seen communities and neighborhoods revitalized and uh trying to keep people in those communities and creating opportunities for them when I see we give the keys to mothers who have lived in public housing with their mother who who lived in there with their mother who now has a backyard and and and and a key to a house is enormous they break out in tears whenever we have these events to uh introduce these program there's lines all the way down the street around the corner earlier this year fair share housing center along with Wells Fargo released a report detailing the success of their efforts in moving New Jersey's affordable housing forward in 2015 the center took over the lead role in figuring out how many units towns are on the hook four so the report shows that through the Mount Laurel Doctrine the following successes were achieved 70,000 new homes including over 20,000 deed restricted affordable homes that have been created in New Jersey since 2015 the homes built have opened up access in wealthy and predominantly white communities that historically have had little affordable housing thanks to current enforcement of the doctrine New Jersey is developing more affordable housing than ever before since 2015 the rate of affordable housing production has nearly doubled and the Murphy Administration has provided more funding for the projects to be built but experts say stigma Still Remains affordable housing is a sticky topic for many people I find that um when it shows up in spaces where folks are not as welcoming or receiving of it it is a lot of times preconceived in Notions that it's you know there's some stigma right there's some assoc negative association with that and there's a lot of preconceived notions that if you put affordable housing in the space it changes the Dynamics of community you know I always say uh to folks that the person who cuts the lawn has as much right to live in a community as the person whose lawn is being cut fair share housing center says to meet the current need for affordable housing in the state 200,000 more units still need to be built for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music]