Housing Forum with Comptroller Lierman

On January 14, over 100 people packed the room for our “How Housing Policy Shapes Maryland’s Economy” event, featuring Comptroller Lierman and co-hosted by PATH (part of the Maryland Just Power Alliance), the Horizon Foundation, Bridges to Housing Stability, Columbia Housing Center, and the Howard County Housing Affordability Coalition.

Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman presented her “Housing & the Economy” report on how Maryland’s high housing costs are driving people to move to other states. Why? Maryland is not building enough housing; we are short by 100,000 homes. See Comptroller Lierman’s slides here and report here.

We’re losing people of all ages, and this is an important issue negatively affecting our workforce, decreasing our tax base and threatening public services. Lierman called for a reconsideration of “regulatory barriers and inefficiencies in housing development processes” to make it easier to build more housing.

Dan Reed from Greater Greater Washington presented polls showing that most Marylanders want “more homes for more budgets in more places.” They talked through policy solutions to make that happen. For example, places like Portland and Minneapolis are reforming their zoning codes to make it easier to build smaller, less expensive homes, and Montgomery County has a revolving fund to spur the development of new affordable housing.

Dan presented several bills coming up in the General Assembly this year which could help Maryland catch up on housing affordability. See Dan’s slides here.

Thanks to Rev. Tyrone Jones, pastor of First Baptist Church of Guilford and PATH Co-Chair, for hosting the event and sharing his personal story of how housing affects his family.

Thank you to all the elected officials and candidates who attended!:

Candidates: Amy Brooks, Cat Carter, Kevin Chin, Regina Clay, Bob Cockey, Janssen Evelyn, Abdun Matin, Amir Naviwala, Jessica Nichols, Shamieka Preston, Jean Xu, Dr. Lanlan Xu

Elected Officials: Councilmember Christiana Rigby, Councilmember Liz Walsh, Councilmember Deb Jung’s office, Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, Del. Pam Guzzone, Del. Terri Hill, Del. Gabriel Moreno, Del. Courtney Watson.

We look forward to continuing to partner with you to ensure that all Maryland residents can afford to make their home here!