Maryland General Assembly Falls Short in Advancing Measures to Keep Families Housed and Hold Landlords Accountable

Despite Overwhelming Support from Local Officials and Advocates, Senate Leadership Caves to Landlord Lobbyists and Blocks Protections for Renters

Annapolis, MD- Amid a growing housing crisis and a looming recession, the Maryland Senate refused to pass Good Cause Eviction – the one housing bill pending that has been proven in other jurisdictions to reduce evictions and displacement while holding corporate landlords accountable. Good Cause Eviction (SB 651/HB 709), which was passed by the House of Delegates last year and has passed in 8 other states and 23 localities, would have allowed counties to require that corporate landlords provide renting families a legitimate reason for any eviction. The General Assembly also cut the budget for eviction prevention funds by 50% at a time when renting families need this support the most. Despite this resistance, Renters United Maryland (RUM) and legislative allies passed key policies that advance housing justice, including a measure that will provide tenants with advance notice of any scheduled eviction date so that tenants can plan and prepare to lessen the catastrophic effects of eviction.

As the General Assembly tries to wrap up its work today, known as Sine Die, news comes that a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that the Salvadoran Maryland resident was wrongly deported to a notorious mass-incarceration facility in El Salvador and must be returned tonight. Definitely a stay-tuned day as worldwide stock markets crash for a third day, more DOGE firings loom and the prez plays golf (while charging the Secret Service for their lodging at... Mar-a-Lago) and many thousands rallied Saturday all over the US in what was called a "THE RESISTANCE ARRIVES" moment.

The Memo will be posted here after the email version has been sent.

Tough times are upon us, as Maryland and other DMV areas lose federal civil service  jobs by the hundreds, daily. For (and from) those who spend some time on history, the rest of us have learned how Trump-style oligarchy is built – by dividing the ordinary working folks who are most affected. Solidarity among billionaires is welcomed and encouraged, including with invitations to the stately pleasure dome at Mar-a-Lago. But not solidarity for working folks, for whom the oligarchs’ goal is isolation and that alone, must-be-my-fault feeling. When we let that isolated feeling overtake us, Trump and his domestic terrorists win – the result, as has always been true of post-industrial capitalism, is blaming yourself for what is actually the greed-riddled economy’s failure to sustain community. Under these conditions it is harder than usual for folks to push themselves to solidarity and resistance. But we must. Here and there, as we see in this week’s News You Can Use, patches of solidarity are emerging and pushing back. We need many more.

Maryland and its Assembly is struggling to preserve its nationally-praised Blueprint for school excellence even as the federal Department of Education appears in danger of being dismembered by the DOGE fanatics and their enabler-president. 

Our and other states may find themselves having to struggle with services and coordinated planning that the DoE has, for better or worse, provided. And, with some justice, conservatives argue that student performance nationwide, especially since the Pandemic, could scarcely be worse, DoE or no. 

Some suggest this will open the door to more states providing taxpayer money for private schools. , a struggle that the Assembly waged with Larry Hogan for nearly every year of his two terms. Public money for private schools seems inevitably to morph into a subsidy for parents who would already be placing their young-uns in the nonpublic sector.

Nevertheless, keeping good teachers and good teaching – and good learning – in the public system  is a critical need for every state, and Kal Hettleman, one of those who fashioned Maryland’s groundbreaking Blueprint, argues in this commentary that more than just an improved teacher pipeline is among the necessaries for reversing the trend – across this and all the states. It recently appeared in Maryland Matters.

I’m a resident of Baltimore City’s Pigtown neighborhood and the Environmental Justice Organizer at Progressive Maryland. In my role, I have connected with over a thousand residents from environmental justice communities in South Baltimore, particularly in neighborhoods like Cherry Hill, Brooklyn, Westport, and Pigtown, all of which are near the WIN Waste incinerator.

The majority of the South Baltimore residents I spoke with while going door-to-door in these neighborhoods were oblivious to two things: (1) they were unaware that incineration has been erroneously recognized as a tier 1 renewable energy source in Maryland's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) since 2011 and (2) they did not know that their monthly electricity payments were financing the WIN Waste incinerator. What they did know was that they were suffering from a variety of health issues like asthma and cancer. This is because the incinerator releases dangerous toxins such as carbon dioxide, heavy metals, and methane that cause severe health implications, as well as a decrease in life expectancy.