Action In Montgomery

Sixty-nine AIM members gathered for a press conference and City Council hearing, urging Gaithersburg City Council Members to adopt an affordable housing policy to require 12.5% affordable and 12.5 % workforce housing. The City Council decided instead to move forward with a proposal to require only 7.5% affordable and 7.5% workforce housing and leave out all of “Olde Town” Gaithersburg which currently has over 1100 affordable housing rental units.

Small Victory: AIM was able to work with Gaithersburg City to ensure that 15% of all new rental units will be affordable. Beforehand, the city had no rental set asides in their affordable housing policy.

These results do not sit well with AIM leaders and AIM Gaithersburg Congregations are now organizing as a group. Gaithersburg AIM members and tenants from 7 different units met on 11/28/06 for the first time. If you want to learn more about tenant organizing in Gaithersburg or possible 2007 Gaithersburg election plans, please contact AIM.

Articles on this Action:
Washington Post, 10/25/06

Affording GaithersburgResidents Divided Over Proposal for Moderate-Income Housing

Over 600 AIM leaders came to show 29 candidates for County Executive and County Council their support for the AIM agenda and to ask each candidate to publicly commit to each agenda item.

All five candidates for County Executive came and each spoke for two minutes to state where they stand on AIM’s Issues. AIM leaders then broke into smaller groups to hear from the county council candidates whose responses were reported to the full AIM audience. Nearly every County Council and County Executive candidate said yes to our five issues including Affordable Housing, Immigration, College Bound, Community Centers and Pedestrian Safety.





Pastor Rebecca Brillhart of Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church gave the Call to Action urging AIM members to hold politicians accountable by getting out the vote in low-voting Montgomery County precincts. At the end of the evening, the congregations took quotas to turn out 100 AIM members to knock on doors to get out the vote, and 100 AIM members to call people in two precincts in Gaithersburg and Burtonsville where AIM is focusing its Get Out The Vote efforts.




Articles on this Action:

Washington Post, 9/7/06

722 AIM members from throughout the county came to Woodside United Methodist Church to present AIM’s 2006 issues to candidates for county council and county executive. These issues are:







Affordable Housing

• Build 1000 affordable & work force housing units on public land by 2009.
• Increase affordable & work force housing units to 25% of all new projects, and condo conversions with 30 or more units, where density increases are permitted.
  

Immigration

• Open a full service USCIS immigration office in Montgomery County
  

Education: “College Bound”

• Scholarships for all students who cannot afford college and have a 90% or greater attendance rate.
• All high schools will have one “College Bound” counselor whose sole job it is to encourage and help students get into college.
  

Community Centers

• $200 million to create top flight, modernized, fully staffed community centers for immigrants, youth & seniors.
  

Pedestrian Safety

• Fix pedestrian safety concerns identified by AIM congregations.
  Twenty two of the candidates for county council and County Executive came to the Action, and each committed to meet with AIM to discuss the agenda items at Candidate Nights in May and June.
  

The same evening Lieutenant Governor Steele and U.S. Representative Chris Van Hollen spoke and committed to insuring a USCIS Immigration Center would be built in Montgomery County. Steele promised to work with the Republican leadership of the Senate to make sure funding for the new center would pass and to set up a meeting with AIM leaders and Homeland Security.

Newspaper articles on this Action include:
Washington Post, 3/16/06
Important Faces in the AIM Crowd

Gazette, 3/15/06
Faith-based group challenges candidates to back its social, housing agenda

Key AIM leaders gathered last night at Woodside United Methodist Church in Silver Spring to make the final preparations for tomorrow's major action.

Research action teams reported on the final drafts of their issue campaigns to be proposed at the action. Other leaders updated those present on the status of discussions with elected officials and various candidates who are expected to attend the action. Alisa Glassman, Lead Organizer of AIM (pictured above) then ran through the planning team's agenda for the action, which was given final approval by those in attendance.

The group then moved to the church's sanctuary to physically run through the action (pictured at left). The group critiqued each speaker after they rehearsed their piece from the podium, and then offered constructive feedback. Floor team leaders and AIM staff noted key points and made the final logistical plans necessary for the event to run smoothly.

We're ready! Hope to see you tomorrow night, at 7:15pm sharp!

710 AIM leaders are scheduled to attend a major action this Thursday, March 9 (7:15-9:00pm sharp!), at Woodside United Methodist Church in Silver Spring. There they will announce and ratify AIM's new 2006 Issue Agenda, and launch a massive, non-partisan get-out-the-vote effort targeting the upcoming county elections. Numerous elected officials and candidates are also expected to attend.

Contact the AIM office for further details.

A week ago last Friday, in an ongoing effort to recruit talented young organizers, IAF East staff held a workshop for individuals interested in pursuing an organizing career. Over 45 potential organizers attended this much anticipated event.

If AIM-style community organizing sounds intriguing to you, check out this new brochure (pdf) produced by IAF East.

Russ Louch, AIM Co-Chair, was quoted in today's Washington Times as staff writer Jon Ward reported on the unmet need for affordable housing in a brief article. Ward focuses on the county's Moderately-Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) program that requires 12.5% of new developments to be "affordable," but exempts developments of less than 20 units.

To expand on Louch's comment, AIM believes the MPDU program was an innovative, cutting-edge program for its time, and congratulates the Montgomery County government for its implementation. Unfortunately, the program is no longer sufficient to meet the housing needs of our communities. That is why AIM has previously proposed the building of an additional 1000 affordable and workforce homes on surplus county land. That proposal received broad support from the county's top officials.

AIM will continue its work to address the critical affordable housing need in Montgomery County. In fact, AIM plans to announce a new housing proposal this coming Thursday. Stay tuned....