By Tashi McQueen,
AFRO Political Writer,
Tmcqueen@afro.com
Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott officially signed the formerly stalled CB 23-0195, “Inclusionary Housing for Baltimore City” and the CB 23-0369, “High-Performance Inclusionary Tax Credit” into law on Jan. 22. Both laws will ensure there are more affordable homes available in Baltimore as soon as next year.
The city’s former inclusionary housing bill expired in June 2022, leaving Baltimore City with no active inclusionary housing laws for a year and a half. According to Ramos, the original 15-year legislation is regarded as a failure since only 34 low-income units were created throughout Baltimore City.
“What we did not want to do with this bill was develop another policy that was great on name, that was great on paper, but did not actually meet the needs of our residents,” said Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby at the official bill signing. “We knew this time around we could get it done, but more importantly get it done the right way.”
The bills were authored and led mainly by Councilwoman Odette Ramos (D-District 14) and the Inclusionary Housing Coalition (IHC) of Baltimore, a group of local organizations advocating for equitable and affordable housing.
In 1911, the Baltimore City Council passed housing segregation legislation that was intended to keep Black people from living in majority White neighborhoods, according to Urban Institute, a D.C.-based think tank.
“We did it, finally! It took not just 15 years, it also took almost three years here in a process to make this work,” said Ramos at Baltimore City Hall. “This bill is one of the first steps in totally annihilating the impact of the racist housing policy that started here.”
According to the latest U.S. Census data, about 20 percent of Baltimore residents live in poverty.
The Baltimore City Point-In-Time Count Report stated that 1,551 people were experiencing homelessness in Baltimore on one night in January 2023. About 73 percent of them were Black Americans, 65 percent of them were men and 17 percent of them were youth (up to 24 years old).
Ramos said the inclusionary housing law was created to establish affordable homes in Baltimore and the tax law was created to pay for it.
“With a history of intentional neglect in so many of our neighborhoods, our focus on housing issues is absolutely critical,” said Scott. “We will continue working to overcome the decades of disinvestment that we have endured.”
Through the legislation, affordable rental units must remain at an affordable price for at least 30 years from the initial occupancy, and the owner must notify the Department of Housing and Community Development one year before its expiration date.
The inclusionary housing bill also requires any residential project with 20 or more dwelling units to set aside at least five percent of the units for low-income households.
“1199SEIU was one of the organizations that worked on the original legislation. We’ve been following this legislation for the last 10 plus years,” said Ricarra Jones, the political director at 1199SEIU United Health Care Workers East, a group that’s a member of the IHC. “We were really glad when Councilwoman Ramos decided to sponsor a new bill so that we could create some legislation that will produce actual units because in the past that hadn’t happened.”
Both bills will go into effect approximately six months after Scott’s signing.
Tashi McQueen is a Report For America corps member.
The post Mayor Brandon M. Scott signs formerly stalled housing legislation, bolsters city’s goal for equitable housing appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
