Across Maryland, renters struggle to find safe, clean, affordable housing. Currently, landlords and property managers operate within a powerful, often under-regulated system with weak enforcement, loopholes, and structural power imbalances.

Economic Action works to provide direct assistance to renters as well as pass legislation in Maryland to expand protections, assistance, and affordability for tenants statewide. This year, we’ve combined our Fair Housing and Tenant Advocacy programs into one program — Housing Services, so we’ll be able to better coordinate with our Securing Older Adult Resources (SOAR) program and policy work.

We have a new Fair Housing Guide for Maryland Landlords. It’s free to download and includes lots of information landlords need to know when listing a property for rent, screening tenants, and during the tenancy. The Guide includes a copy of our handy Federal, State, and Local protected classes cheat sheet, and a handy list of resources where landlords can reach out for help on Fair Housing questions.

We are also developing new materials and expanding outreach and education around homeowner-related issues like tax sales, home renovations, foreclosures, and resources homeowners can use if they’re in need of financial assistance with repairs or foreclosure prevention.

If you have a landlord-tenant or a Fair Housing issue and need self-help information, please go to our Housing Publications page and download any of our fact sheets or our Tenant Guide.