Engagement in our Fair Housing Study
Engagement in our Fair Housing Study
We, as local governments and public housing authorities in the Baltimore region, are teaming up to improve life and increase opportunities for people in their homes and communities.
You are a key player in our work to make this happen!
Below you will find information about our 2025 Fair Housing Plan and also information on the three stakeholder meetings we have held so far. Stay tuned for our draft plan, posted for comment likely in mid-November.
About the Fair Housing Act and Plan
Back in 1968, Congress passed the Fair Housing Act to address housing discrimination and historical unfair policies. This included redlining, segregation, and other 20th century discriminatory policies that kept people from investments and opportunities because of their race, religion, or nationality.
Because of this, every five years, we must:
Examine data to see if people in our region face unequal access to jobs, education, health, and communities with low poverty. We look to see if that inequality corresponds to characteristics protected by fair housing laws. This includes race, having a disability, what country you come from, your religion, your gender, and if you have children.
See if policies under our control or influence could still be contributing to these disparities, even if by mistake. If so, these policies can be considered "impediments to fair housing choice."
Create action steps to address any of those policies and impediments.
Put those action steps in our 2025-2030 plans for using federal housing funds, and then we take action. (Now we are implementing our 2020-2025 plans.)
Our 2025 Fair Housing Plan is now well underway, having held three large stakeholder meetings -- info and materials from those below. We plan to post a draft Plan for comment here in mid-December, hold a hearing January 14, 2025, and gather comment until January 31, 2025 before finalizing the document in February.
So stay tuned! If you know of an organization that would like a presentation on this process, please email me or fill out the next tab on this survey. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have, too.
Dan Pontious, BMC Housing Policy Coordinator
(410) 732-0500 x1055
Third Meeting: Baltimore-Area Fair Housing Study
A total of 64 people joined us for our third large stakeholder meeting for this study -- 36 in person over a delicious lunch from Chef Jamila Wright at the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, and 28 over Zoom. We reviewed our timeline for finishing this study as well as progress on our 2020 analysis goals for publicly supported housing. We also saw new data on recent housing production and also how publicly assisted housing compares with our new opportunity map. We heard reports from our three Working Groups, including initial action step suggestions from our Enforcement and Renters groups. Finally we heard the topline findings of recent opinion research on housing and transportation funded by the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board.
You can watch the Zoom recording of this meeting here. Click on the "Files button below for the agenda and slides from this meeting.
- Files 3
- Third Meeting Agenda 1Oct2024.pdf
- Third Meeting Slides 1Oct2024.pdf
- BMC Public Attitudes 10.1 Presentation.pdf
Second Meeting: Baltimore-Area Fair Housing Study
Thanks to the 59 people who joined this second virtual large stakeholder meeting for this study. We saw the latest data on fair-housing-related disparities in the region, heard updates from our topic-specific small groups, and talked about next steps. See the top of this web page for information on our third large meeting on September 25.
Click on the "Files" button below for the agenda and materials from this meeting.
Kickoff Meeting: Baltimore-Area Fair Housing Study
Thanks to the 68 people who joined us for the first meeting for the 2025 Baltimore-Area Fair Housing Study! We went over our proposed process for developing this study and shared initial data. We also introduced our main consultant, Root Policy Research, our other partners, Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership and Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, and the co-chairs for our working groups. Our slides for this meeting are posted at the in the "Files" tab below, along with a draft resident survey and the results from a similar survey we conducted for our 2020 document.
Please fill out the survey above if you are interested in participating in a small working group and/or have suggestions of organizations we should talk with as we conduct this study.