Baltimore exemplifies how to make affordable and family-friendly housing policies. Image source: Shutterstock (#441157453).
As a result of a federal complaint filed in 2011, the state of Maryland is now offering 1,500 new affordable housing opportunities in high-opportunity neighborhoods in the Baltimore area. Not only will there be significantly more units to live in, but also incentives for developers to concentrate on affordable family-size housing, and to consider subsidizing transportation alternatives.
“Once you knock down these barriers, once the development community starts changing its business model to incorporate looking for sites in high-opportunity areas, once the units get built and the sky doesn’t fall — the political opposition tends to lessen,” says Barbara Samuels, a fair housing attorney with the ACLU of Maryland. “It builds up its own momentum, and we see these 1,500 units as a step that will lead to other future steps.”
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