AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Baltimore is facing a housing crisis…
driven not by families, but by speculators and developers who have treated our vacant homes and distressed neighborhoods as engines for profit. Investors use lightly regulated loans to buy properties in bulk, inflate values on paper, and walk away when the loans collapsed. Developers use public subsidies to finance luxury projects that never reached the communities most in need. And federally supported housing like Penn North Plaza fall into dangerous disrepair because oversight is weak and owners are allowed to neglect residents for years.
These failures are connected. They reflect a system where the rules were written to reward speculation instead of stability. When the market chases profit at any cost, neighborhoods suffer, rents rise, homes sit vacant, and seniors are left in buildings that are unsafe and unfit to live in.
On the City Council, I opposed short sighted upzoning proposals that would have opened the door to even more speculation, and I confronted the dangerous deterioration of subsidized housing, including buildings that had become hotspots for drug activity because oversight and maintenance had collapsed. I have taken on corporate abuse and government neglect across multiple systems, and I know how to push for accountability when families are being failed.
As your congressman, I will:
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through regulation of DSCR and investor lending, requiring real underwriting and rehabilitation standards, limiting bulk buying in distressed neighborhoods, and creating a national registry to track investor ownership and foreclosures.
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by conditioning TIFs, PILOTs, and federal tax advantages on affordability and community benefit, banning subsidy stacking, and directing public investment to neighborhoods that have endured vacancy and disinvestment.
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by ending the collusion that inflated values in Baltimore, requiring independent review for investor portfolios, enforcing anti-discrimination standards in valuation, and strengthening oversight of subsidized housing inspections.
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by expanding federal support for community land trusts, limiting equity co-ops, and nonprofit developers, and making sure vacant homes and federal disposition properties strengthen neighborhoods instead of feeding speculation.
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by expanding small dollar mortgages, pairing home purchases with rehabilitation financing, supporting first generation buyers, cracking down on predatory home repair lending, and modernizing senior housing so longtime residents can age safely in place.
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by guaranteeing good cause eviction protections in federally supported housing, preserving leases during investor foreclosures, supporting tenant right of first refusal, and ensuring habitability and safety in all subsidized and investor owned properties.
Baltimore deserves a housing system that strengthens neighborhoods instead of hollowing them out. My goal is simple: build a housing market rooted in families, stability, and opportunity, not speculation and profit extraction.