Housing Justice
Everyone has the right to safe, affordable housing free from discrimination, harassment, and code violations. Our Tenant Advocacy and Fair Housing programs assist thousands of people a year struggling with unsafe, illegal, or discriminatory housing situations. Our policy advocacy is directly shaped by the people we work with as we seek to create systemic change that leads to better housing for everyone.
Homeownership can be a vital aspect of wealth-building for low-and-moderate income families. The 2009 mortgage crisis devastated thousands of working families across Maryland who lost wealth and equity throughout the crisis. This has been particularly true for communities of color who were steered into toxic mortgage loan products regardless of credit scores or fair market value of their homes. For years, Maryland ranked second in the nation for foreclosures, lagging only behind Florida.
Although foreclosure rates did not tick up substantially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in interest rates may lead to an acceleration of foreclosures. For older adults, housing affordability, age-friendly modifications, and rising property taxes make it difficult for elders to age in place. For tenants, rental prices have skyrocketed in recent years while, in Maryland, the onus of most landlord tenant law remains on the tenant. Maryland’s tenant laws continue to need substantial reforms while protecting for low-income residents of manufactured housing communities lag.
Advocacy
Maryland has the eighth highest rent in the country and eighty-six percent of low-income renters in Maryland are cost-burdened. Simply put, rent in Maryland is unaffordable and unsustainable. Furthermore, with the twin health and wealth crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many renters faced eviction and homeowners struggled against foreclosures. Economic Action Maryland Fund supports and advocates for policies that increase rental housing protections, reform the eviction process, increase housing tax credits for older adults, and expand rights and safe housing for renters and homeowners.
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RESEARCH
Economic Action Maryland Fund passed legislation to shorten the timeline of deficiency judgements. Marylanders who lost their homes in foreclosure could be pursued for these deficiencies for up to 36 years — even when the bank has already sold the home and is collecting payments on the new mortgage. Our policy brief, Deficiency judgements, examines the hardships these deficiencies place on low-income people and offers policy recommendations that paved the way for a successful reduction of the deficiency collection timeline.
The National Mortgage Settlement of 2012 was intended to ensure that the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders address mortgage servicing, foreclosure, and bankruptcy abuses. However, Economic Action Maryland’s National Mortgage Settlement Analysis found that lenders failed to meaningfully meet their relief obligations and few families received enough assistance to stay in their homes and their communities.
