Vote on Mount Holly Gardens housing bias case

MOUNT HOLLY - The Township Committee is expected to vote Wednesday to accept a settlement to end a long-running housing discrimination case.

A special meeting stemming from a lawsuit filed by residents of the Mount Holly Gardens is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the F.W. Holbein Middle School on Levis Drive.

If the committee approves a series of resolutions, it would resolve the case only weeks before it was scheduled for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Details of the proposed settlement have not been announced, but some residents have said they expect to receive homes in the new development. Others will get a buyout to purchase a home on their own, and the remainder will get relocation assistance.

A group of low-income, mostly minority residents who live in the Gardens sued the township five years ago over its plans to demolish their crime-ridden neighborhood and replace it with market-rate housing they could not afford.

The case went through the state courts, which upheld the township. It was moved to federal court five years ago, and eventually landed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Residents argued that they were not offered enough money to find comparable housing elsewhere, and that the planned redevelopment project was tantamount to discrimination because most of the residents are minorities. Only 60 of the 350 rowhouses remain.

- Melanie Burney