In the News
Protect Consumers from BGE Rate Hikes
On September 29, Economic Action Maryland and thirteen other organizations submitted a comment letter to the Public Service Commission opposing BGE's $602.4 million rate increase. The Public Service Commission needed to hear that many more citizens care about this rate hike that is not transparent, foists the costs of BGE’s infrastructure investments onto households and is likely to increase costs by $810 per household which will harm low-income, and disproportionately Black and Brown households throughout BGE’s footprint. Many households who are living paycheck to paycheck earn just above the threshold to qualify for assistance but certainly cannot afford to subsidize BGE’s ...
International Rights Group Calls Out U.S. for Allowing Hospitals to Push Millions Into Debt
Human Rights Watch, the nonprofit that for decades has called attention to the victims of war, famine, and political repression around the world, is taking aim at U.S. hospitals for pushing millions of American patients into debt. “Medical debt is drowning many low-income and working families while hospitals continue to benefit from nonprofit tax status as they pursue families for medical debt,” said Marceline White, executive director of Economic Action Maryland. Read the full article here.
Forum highlights discrimination and appraisal bias in housing
Although Maryland is one of the most diverse states in the nation, advocates say geographical and racial bias remains within the state’s housing industry. Robyn Dorsey, fair housing director for Economic Action Maryland, said Bank of America represents Baltimore City’s largest depositor of funds at 43%. However, it has invested less than 4% in home purchase mortgages. Read the full article here.
Poppleton Housing Complaint
Economic Action Maryland, along with Ms. Angela Banks, an African American member of Baltimore’s Poppleton community, have filed an administrative complaint with HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development) against Baltimore City, Mayor Brandon Scott, and the City Council for consistent violations of the Fair Housing Act. The complaint states the City’s redevelopment policies have violated the Fair Housing Act by displacing Black residents of Poppleton from the neighborhood and into more deeply segregated parts of Baltimore City as well as out of the city entirely. This continuous violation has gone on since at least 1975. The city has ...
Bank of America Donates Branch Building to South Baltimore Community Group
Economic Action Maryland is celebrating Bank of America’s donation of the historic bank branch (closed 2020) building to the Greater Baybrook Alliance. Read about this awesome collaboration here, here, here or here.