Overview
The region’s 2012 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI) identified the loss of existing affordable rental units regionally as an impediment to fair housing. As a result, in 2016 the region's housing agencies in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, and Howard Counties established a policy to address this impediment. The policy created the Regional Rental Home Affordability Preservation Task Force to be the key vehicle for coordinated public- and private-sector strategy and action toward a goal of zero net loss of rental home affordability at 50% of the Baltimore area median income (AMI) and below. The Task Force meets periodically to review properties potentially at risk of losing their affordability, learn about potentially useful preservation strategies, and chart a course forward.
Purpose and Mission
- To preserve current affordable rental home resources where possible and develop strategies to create new affordability when existing resources are lost.
- To promote coordination among local and state government and interested private sector parties to achieve that goal.
Membership
The Task Force includes local housing agency staff, state and federal housing officials, private sector housing and community development representatives, affordable housing developers, public and private sector disability experts, and fair housing advocates. The membership is generally described in the regional policy and includes officials who can strategize and potentially bring resources to assist in addressing the challenge.