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Safe, affordable housing needs to be preserved in 2024 General Assembly
Housing stability is a vital step toward self-sufficiency and economic opportunity. An individual’s access to housing is fundamentally linked with the well-being of their community. Loss of a home, whether through eviction or foreclosure, is often the catalyst for a cascade of adverse economic and social consequences for the poorest and most marginalized in our communities. Unstably housed families are more likely to experience a disruption of education, endure acute and prolonged stress reactions, suffer mental or physical health challenges, face financial insecurity and be the victim or perpetrator of violence. Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore declared secure housing as a priority, and the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland (PBRC) is optimistic about what can be accomplished to preserve safe and affordable housing during the 2024 Maryland General Assembly session.
PBRC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has also made housing justice a priority. As the statewide thought leader and clearinghouse for volunteer civil legal services in Maryland, PBRC provides training, mentorship and an array of pro bono service opportunities to lawyers along with direct legal services to underserved communities. Our work in the courthouses and immersed in local communities means that we see up close how statewide policies impact people’s lives on the ground. We are convinced that legislation to ensure equitable housing opportunities is necessary.
PBRC advocates on behalf of both homeowners and renters. We host tax sales, foreclosure prevention and advance planning legal clinics to preserve homeownership for low-income families enabling them to pass on their primary asset – their home – as intergenerational wealth. We advocate for tenants in rent court to avoid unnecessary evictions and ensure they live in secure, habitable properties free from dangerous conditions and health hazards. Many of our clients are Black and brown families. Allowing them to remain in their homes improves racial equity, community stability and justice in communities that need and deserve it.
For vulnerable, low-income homeowners, tax sale prevention is critically important to ensure they do not lose their homes in foreclosure for small sums of overdue property taxes. Access to property tax credits and certain mechanisms of estate planning are key upstream measures of preventing people from ending up in tax sale.
During the 2023 legislative session, bills put forth by the City of Baltimore to reform its tax sale process unfortunately failed at the last minute. We hope to see tax sale reform put back on the table. Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, where PBRC primarily operates its tax sale work, have particularly high proportions of residents facing tax sale. The city has recognized that there is a better way to address these delinquencies. Allowing payment plans will enable more residents to pay what they owe, allow interest and expenses to contribute to the city’s revenue (rather than to third-party investors), and give residents more time to pay down their tax debt. The Mayor of Baltimore Brandon Scott, is committed to helping residents who are at risk of tax sales, reducing the inequities, ending predatory third-party involvement and addressing the problem of vacancies, but cannot do so without legislative reform.
PBRC also supports legislation to increase easy and automatic access to the Homeowners’ Property Tax Credit Program and bills that create a transfer-on-death deed to automatically transfer a deed without the need for heirs to pre-pay property taxes and clear all liens, such as water bills. This paves the way for lower-income families to maintain their homes without an undue burden up-front. We are also hopeful that legislation creating a right to counsel in foreclosure proceedings, like there is for evictions, will gain traction.
For tenants, lessening the impact of judicial proceedings on their ability to secure future housing by allowing them to shield Failure to Pay Rent actions that result in a dismissal or judgment for tenant, offers more stability. PBRC supports the Tenant Safety Act, which passed the House in 2023 and will create more accessible means for tenants to pay their rent into escrow and encourage landlords to remedy threats to the life, health or safety in the home; legislation to fund Emergency Rental Assistance dollars statewide; and bills to allow tenants time to reclaim their property during an eviction. Simply allowing a tenant more time to get their belongings can be the difference between being able to start over on their own or having to go to a shelter.
When something as vital as housing is at stake, a right to counsel is essential. To its credit, the legislature recognized the right in eviction cases. and ensuring additional and consistent funding for the already-established Access to Counsel in Evictions (ACE) Program. We must build on the progress we have made. Like homeowners in foreclosure actions, tenants face an uneven playing field when faced with legal processes that could lead to the loss of their homes. PBRC has been working to combat that inequity since 2017 when we started the state’s first Day of Court program in Baltimore City Rent Court. Since that time, we have assisted over 9,500 tenants by placing experienced staff and volunteers at rent court dockets to provide day-of-court services, operating a Tenant Hotline, and offering representation in other types of eviction actions. We prevail in 90% of the cases we close, demonstrating how crucial representation is to equal justice.
We applaud Governor Moore’s commitment to addressing pressing housing issues and agree that now is the time for our lawmakers to act to preserve stable housing for our most vulnerable neighbors and communities. Doing so will minimize the harm created by the displacement of tenants or legacy homeowners and the scourge of home vacancies, ensuring that diverse communities thrive.
Sharon Goldsmith is the founding director of Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland.
