What Happens When You End Racial Isolation in Housing?

This weekend, The New York Times published Ending the Cycle of Racial Isolation, an editorial examining the case of a New Jersey suburb Mount Laurel that has successfully implemented a new concept for low-income housing developments.

Subsidized housing in existing ghettos often leads to a cycle of racial discrimination which prevents low-income families from having access to safe neighborhoods, good jobs and schools for their children, according to the Times.

But in Mount Laurel, a court decision ruled that they could no longer segregate these families to ghettos, and instead an attractive suburban development, Ethel R. Lawrence Homes, was created.

The result? More diverse neighborhoods in Mount Laurel that have not seen an increase in crime or decrease in property values. More importantly, low-income families have access to opportunities that will allow them to rise above the struggles that plague their class around the country.

Time will tell if Mount Laurel becomes the model template for future housing developments throughout the United States.