Why Affordable Housing?

Affordable housing is the most frequent issue we have heard in our listening sessions with community members. We want Montgomery County to be a place where people who work in the county can afford to live in quality housing, and where families can afford to live and settle across generations. 

Affordable Housing Policy

We focus on 3 areas of affordable housing policy, based on Shane Phillips' book The Affordable City:

1. Supply: Build new, high-density transit-oriented housing and affordable housing.
   Supply is imperative to stabilize housing prices in our region, and make sure that housing subsidy goes to those with the most need.

2. Stability: Provide stability for families to continue living in Montgomery County across generations. It strengthens our community when residents are able to live in the same neighborhood over years. This impacts many facets of life, including quality of education, community safety, and more. An example of this includes preserving the quality of older, affordable housing stock.

3. Subsidy: Subsidy is necessary to supplement the housing costs for our lowest income residents and to build affordable housing for the future. A main reason why families were able to keep housing during Covid was the subsidies the federal, state and local governments provided towards rent.

Victories

• More Housing NOW (ZTA 25-02) (2025)
  This zoning rule will make it possible to build duplexes, triplexes, and small apartment buildings along major roads like Georgia Avenue where currently only single-family homes are allowed. 

• Consumer Protection for Renters Act (2025)
  This law will enable Montgomery County to take landlords to court for repeated housing code violations and deceptive practices toward tenants.

• Statewide Housing Victories (2024)
  In the 2024 Maryland legislative session, we supported two bills related to affordable housing and stability for renters, which both passed.

• FAITH ZTA (2024)
  This law will make it easier for religious congregations and private educational institutions to build affordable housing on their land.

• Preserving Affordability at Westchester West (2023)
  AIM successfully advocated for keeping Westchester West Apartments affordable by having the county purchase and sell them to a nonprofit developer.

• Housing Initiative Fund (2002)
  In 2002, AIM won the first dedicated funding for Montgomery County’s Housing Initiative Fund to create and preserve affordable housing. Every year since then, AIM has successfully pushed for increased funding, resulting in over $1.1 billion in total. 

How to Get Involved

To get involved in our housing campaign, contact the AIM delegate for your congregation or community, or contact Tanushree Isaacman (tanushree@actioninmontgomery.org).