Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
On September 28, 2026, at 1:30 p.m., the Planning, Housing & Parks (PHP) Committee met in Rockville, Maryland, to review the federal housing landscape and a new Office of Legislative Oversight report on affordable housing production and preservation across the Washington region. Chair Andrew Friedson led the meeting, joined by Council President Natali Fani-González and Councilmember Will Jawando (virtually). The committee heard from state, county, public housing authority, municipal housing authority, and planning staff. No votes were taken.
Maryland DHCD perspective: Chuck Cook, senior advisor, and Mira Morgan, senior policy analyst, described the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, enacted July 11, 2026, with votes of 85-5 in the Senate and 358-32 in the House. Morgan said the package includes over 60 housing provisions focused on supply, including reauthorizing the HOME program, making affordable housing construction eligible for CDBG, and creating seven new grant programs for state and local governments. She noted HUD faces at least 125 required actions and is down about 30% of staff compared with fiscal year 2025, and the Act includes no new appropriations; funding may not come until fiscal year 2028 at the earliest. Asked about state legislation, Cook said DHCD expects to draft a single-stair building bill in mid-December based on the Maryland Department of Labor study due December 1. Cook said the department's "evergreen position" is that "more federal money is better."
County DHCA perspective: Scott Bruton, director of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, with Matt Cornower, reviewed DHCA-administered HUD funds (CDBG, HOME, ESG). He reported that in the House FY27 THUD appropriations bill, CDBG and ESG appeared level-funded, while HOME funding was reduced by 60%. He highlighted ROAD changes: CDBG can now fund new affordable housing construction, capped at 20% of a grantee's CDBG allocation; HOME eligibility for homeownership assistance rises from 80% to 100% of area median income; HOME purchase price limits are increased; and 24-month HOME commitment deadlines are removed. Bruton cautioned that the 2021 Build America, Buy America Act raises costs by about 25%, and that potential CDBG formula changes could cut allocations by 10% for jurisdictions below median housing growth.
Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC): HOC President Andrews and Vice President of Government Affairs Ken Silverman highlighted nine ROAD provisions relevant to housing authorities, including the public welfare investment cap increase for bank investment in low-income housing tax credits, rental assistance demonstration (RAD) permanence, a family self-sufficiency escrow pilot, streamlined inspections, and Moving to Work expansion. Silverman noted the FHA-Federal Financing Bank risk-share enhancement remains paused by the Trump administration and is not in ROAD; HOC hopes ROAD 2.0 will authorize it. Andrews reported that HOC administers about 7,800 vouchers and 1,787 project-based rental assistance units, and has issued nearly $900 million in federally supported multifamily mortgages. She said HUD recaptured $5.8 million from HOC reserves, the agency is not currently issuing vouchers, more than 50% of housing authorities are in shortfall, and HOC expects to begin reissuing vouchers in spring after projected shortfall resolution by January. HOC also received a $1 million congressional earmark for its Wheaton Gateway project.
Rockville Housing Enterprises (RHE): Executive Director James Hedrick said RHE serves roughly 1,300-1,400 families. He emphasized that RHE's 76-unit David Scull Courts public housing site needs RAD conversion because federal operating and capital funding is insufficient for rehabilitation. RHE has 80 public housing units total (76 at David Scull, 4 at Parkside). Hedrick supported ROAD provisions on inspections, family self-sufficiency, opportunity zones, and CDBG flexibility, noting some are already implemented through RHE's Moving to Work waivers.
Presentation: Office of Legislative Oversight analysts Williet Finn and Natalia Carrizosa presented findings from interviews with 15 Washington-region jurisdictions. They reported that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments set a 2020-2030 regional target of 320,000 new housing units, with 75% affordable to low- and middle-income households. Montgomery County supported the regional target but has not adopted its own affordable housing target. From 2021 to 2025, the county produced 2,592 units affordable at 80% AMI or below, 18% of total units built; this exceeded Fairfax and Prince George's counties but trailed the District of Columbia.
Regional approaches: Fourteen of 15 jurisdictions have dedicated housing trust funds; Montgomery County's is the Housing Initiative Fund. The county's MPDU program, adopted in 1973, was the first inclusionary zoning program in the U.S. and requires 12.5% to 15% affordable units in developments of 20 or more units, with no fee-in-lieu. Nine of 15 jurisdictions fund local rental assistance, and 10 fund local homeownership assistance; Montgomery County's maximum down payment assistance is a $50,000 deferred, zero-interest loan, more than Frederick County but less than Loudoun, Arlington, and D.C.
Equity data: OLO reported that about 75% of white and Asian households in Montgomery County own their homes, compared with 54% of Latinx and 40% of Black households. Latinx and Black households are 50% more likely than white and Asian households to spend at least 30% of income on rent, and 84% of adults experiencing homelessness on the 2025 point-in-time count identified as people of color.
Stakeholder feedback: OLO said community stakeholders reported that residents lack awareness of rental assistance options, that county program complexity can deter developers, and that help often comes only at crisis. Municipalities including Rockville and Gaithersburg view Montgomery County as a model and see opportunities for collaboration on public land and financing.
Recommended issues: OLO recommended the council discuss adopting affordable housing targets, improving data transparency through a cross-departmental housing dashboard, deepening community engagement, and increasing policy alignment with Rockville and Gaithersburg.
Chair Friedson expressed strong support for measurable housing targets, noting targets help the region and could unlock federal and state incentives; he said the target conversation should return by the end of October. Councilmember Jawando emphasized the human urgency, citing three new eviction and homelessness cases in his office in 24 hours, and said he looks forward to advancing his anti-algorithmic price-fixing bill. Council President Fani-González defended HOC against unfair blame during the voucher shortfall, said the county cannot solve housing alone, and advocated including HOC data in any new dashboard.
Lisa Gavoni of Montgomery County Planning said the county recently completed a statistically valid housing preferences survey, which will go to the Planning Board on November 12 and can be briefed to the committee afterward. She noted 11 projects are using the commercial-to-residential reconstruction (CRR) tool, producing at least 17.5% MPDUs. On housing targets, Planning is open to developing affordable housing goals but needs to account for the county's diverse geography.
In response to Jawando, DHCA Director Bruton said the county is building a cross-departmental housing production pipeline dashboard, with a common property identifier already in place; the goal is a working model by Thanksgiving or the end of 2026.
Good afternoon. It is 1:30 on September 28th. We're here as the Planning Housing and Parks Committee. I am here with the Council President, and we have Councilmember Jawanda who has joined us virtually. We hope you are feeling well. And it's great to see you here with us, joining us virtually. And we have a number of guests here for this briefing, a very timely conversation on the federal housing landscape. We have partners from the state. We have the county. We have our municipal partners at Rockville Housing Enterprises, as well as our public housing agency, housing opportunities commission, and we're going to talk about the state of affairs. There are some exciting changes at the federal level. One of the few positive things that we have seen. But unfortunately, there's a number of uh significant negative dynamics as well that our community, our residents, and our partners at every level of government are facing and navigating through. And so we're going to talk about it today and get a series of presentations and briefings. So with that, let me turn it over to council staff, and you can introduce uh the various guests that we have and help us walk through the presentations. Sure. So at this point, I'll invite our guests to join us at the table, at the table here. Uh we have uh Mr. Chuck Cook uh from the Department of Housing and Community Development at the state uh along with um senior policy analyst Midar Morgan, also with DHCD. We have Mr. Bruton, uh Mr. Cornier from DHCA, uh, and then of course Ms. Andrews from Housing Office Commission and uh Mr. Hendrik Hedrick from the Rockville Housing Enterprises joining us today. Um beyond that, the staff report um that's been published has some very basic background information on the on the federal road to house. 21st century Road to Housing Act that was enacted by Congress uh this past July, um just covering some of the key areas uh and regulatory changes uh from the act, um noting that also that um the act does it's meant to be rapidly implemented over the next 12 to 18 months. Uh there are a number of regular regulatory uh changes that need to be um acted upon by HUD before some of these provisions do take effect. But um the the um each of the areas are in the staff report. But um in terms of how that affects the state and the county, I will turn it over to our um uh guest today to go through each of their presentations. Great. Thank you. Welcome and thanks for being here. We know some of you traveled uh greater distances than others, and uh really appreciate uh especially our partners from the state for joining us today. Thank you, Chairman. Uh thank you, Madam President. Uh thank you, uh Councilmember Jawondo. Uh for the record, my name is Chuck Cook. I'm senior advisor over at the uh Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. And uh to my right is our senior policy analyst, uh Mira Morgan. Um thank you guys for having us on here. This is an incredibly impactful piece of legislation, like the uh chair said. And um without any further ado, I just wanted to say one thing, which is we may leave, and I apologize. I actually put this in an email. We may leave after our presentation only because we have another meeting in uh Prince George's County to get to. So I just wanted to make sure that you you knew that we weren't rudely just getting up while the others are presenting, but I just wanted to make sure that uh that that that was level set at the beginning. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce my uh my colleague Mira Morgan, our subject matter expert is gonna talk about uh this 21st century Road to Housing Act and the implications for the state of Maryland.