MD Housing bill sees last minute adjustments, consideration for manufactured homes

MARYLAND – Maryland has just over a week left in its legislative session and lawmakers say in the House of Delegates, that means final adjustments are being hammered out for the state’s affordable housing agenda.

A bill that would have let the state overrule local zoning and county governments to build affordable housing units is being amended to give more local control back, citing a need for public services in the area to be able to scale with the new development.

Delegate Sheeree Sample-Hughes tells us they are also making sure that development projects will have affordable units incorporated in their design plans, as well as having a sliding scale on what affordable means on where that housing is located.

“The bill as it was introduced, speaks to the affordability of it and making certain that 30% of your median income will become the priority to go by that scale. In addition, such as persons needing to have access to transit, access to work,” she said adding “to our local governments to know that, yes, those would be addressed and then also that these would be affordable, on the sense of based on your jurisdiction, on the economic of your jurisdiction in particular.”

She says the measure has also been amended to allow for manufactured homes to fit within the scope of the bill, allowing projects with those homes to be eligible to receive funding under the proposed state-issued funding program.