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News Maryland News

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Outline Housing Policies At Forum

September 22, 2021 by Maryland Matters

Six Democratic gubernatorial candidates laid out their plans to tackle housing insecurity and protect tenants at a Tuesday night forum, coalescing around reforms like access to counsel in eviction cases and rent stabilization.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot, former Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, former Obama administration official Ashwani Jain, former U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., former nonprofit CEO Wes Moore and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez attended the Tuesday evening forum hosted by the Montgomery County Renters Alliance.

Maryland Matters Founding Editor Josh Kurtz, alongside Baltimore Sun reporter Pamela Wood and Washington Post reporter Kyle Swenson and attendees asked candidates about a wide range of proposed housing reforms.

Here’s what the candidates had to say about tenant protections, eviction prevention and affordable housing in Maryland:

Access to counsel in eviction cases

The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill from Del. Wanika T. Fisher (D-Prince George’s) during their 2021 legislative session to provide tenants access to counsel in eviction cases — but a separate bill that would’ve raised court filing fees and eviction surcharges to pay for that access to counsel didn’t pass before the session ended.

Candidates expressed their support for giving tenants the right to counsel in eviction cases at the forum.

King said his progressive advocacy organization Strong Future Maryland supported Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh’s effort last year to raise court fees and summary ejectment surcharges to fund access to counsel.

“We have to have a right to counsel for tenants that is funded so that tenants are supported when they go to court,” King said in his opening remarks.

Perez said that Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) should use some federal rent relief funding to pay for the expanded access to counsel until the General Assembly passes a more permanent funding solution. He also said the state should include diversion programs as part of the eviction process.

“This governor can solve this emergency with a stroke of a pen,” Perez said.

Franchot, who pushed for the fast disbursement of rent relief funding at a recent Board of Public Works hearing, said federal rent relief funding needs to be used to fund the initiative in the short term. He said Marylanders at risk of eviction can’t afford to wait until the General Assembly reconvenes for assistance.

“Hundreds of thousands of low-wage earners who are facing eviction couldn’t care less about what the legislature’s doing and what might be done down the road,” Franchot said.

Moore said that while the vast majority of landlords have counsel in eviction cases, only a small number of tenants do. He said providing tenants with access to counsel is “the just thing to do and it is the right thing to do.”

Gansler said he supports a full right to counsel in civil cases including evictions, and said the state should promote legal aid services until such a law is passed.

“When both sides have counsel, you’re more likely to come to a satisfactory resolution for both sides,” Gansler said.

Just cause eviction laws

HB 1312, introduced by Del. Jheanelle K. Wilkins (D-Montgomery) during the 2021 legislative session, required that landlords provide a “just cause” to evict a tenant. Just cause eviction laws are meant to shore up housing stability and protect tenants from unnecessary evictions, according to the housing policy organization Local Housing Solutions.

Just cause provisions were removed from Wilkins’ bill in committee, and the legislation failed to pass before the end of the 2021 legislative session, but candidates praised the proposed reform Monday night.

“We have to have just cause protections to make sure that the landlord is required to provide you with a notice, a reasoning, and at least some sort of effort to remedy the issue before going straight to evictions,” Jain said. “And again, not only is that going to help more people stay in homes and housing, but it’s going to be better for the economy and better for the community as a whole.”

King said candidates need to be clear about their policy stances on issues like access to counsel and just cause eviction reforms — which he supports — in their campaigns.

“One of my fears is, if this campaign is waged in generalities, not in specifics, we will not have a clear mandate to act,” King said. “Just Cause Eviction laws, yes or no? If yes, say it in a campaign and let’s campaign on that.”

Gansler likewise voiced his support for just cause legislation.

“We have to have a governor who stands for the principle that people should not be evicted from their home, unless there’s just cause to do so,” he said.

Perez said his “biggest disappointment” of the 2021 legislative session was that a package of housing reforms, including Wilkins’ bill, didn’t pass. He said he hopes the General Assembly will try again when they return to session.

“Success is about persistence and it’s not just just cause, but it’s other things,” Perez said. “I’d like to deal with appraisal issues in the home purchase context and some real barriers to entry for people who are trying to buy a home.”

Moore said conversations around eviction reforms like just cause legislation need to go beyond housing policy.

“We’re talking about things like how do we make rent more affordable and how do we think about preventing eviction and just cause, all really important things,” Moore said. “The other thing we must also couple that with is how are we making sure that people are getting paid a fair wage.”

Rent stabilization and affordable housing

Candidates also discussed rent stabilization, a reform highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic when some local jurisdictions in Maryland, including Prince George’s County, placed temporary restrictions on rent increases and late fees. They also touched on how they would increase the state’s stock of affordable housing as governor.

Maryland has no statewide rent stabilization or rent control, although the city of Takoma Park has a longstanding stabilization law.

Jain said he supports rent control — but said such a program should only be undertaken if the state limits its property tax increases.

“Rent control is really important in terms of providing people a sustainable way of paying their bills, knowing what bills are going to come up,” Jain said. “The only exception is, we can only do that if we’re not raising property taxes.”

Franchot agreed with Jain, and said he was concerned about small landlords’ property taxes if rent stabilization rules are enacted.

“The devil’s in the details,” Franchot said.

King said Maryland needs a “statewide approach” to rent stabilization and other tenant issues. He advocated a holistic approach to housing policy by funding public transit and building up communities in addition to housing, and said he supports building the Red Line in Baltimore.

“By not building the Red Line project in Baltimore City, Gov. Hogan set Baltimore back 20, 30, maybe even 40 years,” King said, adding that he supports building light rail in southern Maryland. “We have to invest in transit as we invest in housing.”

He also argued for reforming zoning laws in order to make affordable housing easier to develop.

Moore said building affordable housing also needs to mean investing in education, transit and access to medical services within communities.

“This is not about how we move people to opportunity, this is about how we move opportunity to people,” Moore said.

Gansler advocated for renovating existing buildings into affordable housing rather than building entirely new units, citing concerns about urban sprawl.

“I don’t think the answer is to build more houses,” Gansler said. “There’s plenty of houses out there.”

Franchot echoed Gansler’s concerns about urban sprawl.

Speeding up rent relief funding

Maryland has received hundreds of millions in federal rent relief funding, but that money has been slow to get to tenants and landlords. While state and local governments’ disbursement of rent relief funding has increased in recent months, candidates said the state should be doing more to speed up the process.

Franchot reiterated his calls for streamlined rent relief throughout the forum.

“It is held up in a kind of pattern of incompetence that results in the very meager allocations that are made,” Franchot said.

Moore said the state government needs to work more closely with local jurisdictions to get out rent relief funding, and cautioned against putting all the blame on local governments for slow rent relief disbursement.

“The state can do a better job, and the state can actually take leadership and work in partnership with a local jurisdiction,” he said.

King said the state could be learning from local programs, like some jurisdictions’ partnership with United Way to bundle rent relief applications by working directly with landlords.

The current administration has a broader pattern of not coordinating with local governments, King said. “You talk to county executives and they’ll tell you they heard about some of the COVID policy changes at the governor’s press conference,” he said.

Perez said state officials should be working with the judiciary and sheriffs to find out which tenants are facing eviction in order to expedite rent relief funding to them.

“We should know, every person in this state, who is about to get evicted, so that we can provide that relief. We can move them to the front of the queue, so that doesn’t happen,” Perez said.

Baltimore tech entrepreneur and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Rosenbaum, who along with former Clinton administration official Jon Baron was not invited to the forum, said in a statement that “despite millions of dollars being available to keep people in their homes, the vast majority of funds still haven’t made it into the pockets of struggling Marylanders. This is what frustrates people about government, and it spotlights why we need new leadership who understands how to make these systems work for regular people.”

Former Prince George’s County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Rushern L. Baker III (D) withdrew from the forum following the death of his wife, Christa Beverly Baker, on Sept. 18.

Watch the full forum here.

By Bennett Leckrone

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: candidates, democratic, forum, governor, gubernatorial, housing, Maryland

Schulz Wastes No Time After Rutherford Bows Out; Glassman Expected to Run for Comptroller

April 15, 2021 by Maryland Matters

Hours after the news hit that Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford (R) will not run for governor in 2022, state Commerce Secretary Kelly M. Schulz announced her candidacy with an online video and a new website.

“We’ve come a long way over the course of the past few years, but there is still so much work we have left to do,” Schulz said in her announcement video. “I’m running for governor so we can continue to build upon all of our past successes and fulfill the great promise and potential of our state.”

Analysts expect the Frederick County resident and former state delegate to play up her role in the cabinet of Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), whose job approval numbers remain at historic highs.

Democrats immediately sought to tie Schulz to former President Trump, who is wildly unpopular among voters here.

In what appeared to be a coordinated move, Schulz waited until Wednesday to launch her candidacy in deference to Rutherford, who announced in a Maryland Matters interview that he will not seek the post that Hogan is vacating due to term limits.

Rutherford, who has served alongside Hogan since 2015, cited a lack of support from his wife and three grown children, who urged him to forego the rigors of a campaign.

The lieutenant governor would have entered the race as the early favorite for the GOP nomination, and his decision not to run makes it more likely that multiple candidates will get into the race. Anti-tax gadfly and frequent candidate Robin Ficker is already seeking the GOP nomination.

But in what appears to be part of a broader coordinated effort among leading Maryland Republicans, Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, who considered a gubernatorial bid, is expected to announce on Thursday that he is running for comptroller, multiple sources said. He has scheduled a kickoff event at 11:30 a.m. at the Level Volunteer Fire Company in Havre de Grace.

Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who served as lieutenant governor from 2003 to 2006, said on Wednesday that he is considering a run for governor but he has yet to reach a decision.

Several political professionals — especially Democrats — said they expect a Republican more closely affiliated with the Trump wing of the party to also run for governor, though no one has emerged yet.

Schulz, 52, is sure to highlight her biography as a single mother who got her college degree relatively late in life before starting a business career as she charts her campaign for governor. Schulz was a program manager for a defense contractor and a partner in a small cybersecurity firm. She also served in her local PTA when her children were in school.

“I’m running for governor so we can continue to build upon all of our past successes and fulfill the great promise and potential of our state,” she said Wednesday. “Together, we can get Marylanders working, help our struggling families and small businesses, and restore and strengthen our economy.”

Schulz got her political start serving on the Frederick County Republican Central Committee — and was county GOP chair from 2008 to 2010.

She ran what she assumed to be a longshot bid for a state House seat in 2010, but wound up beating four-term Del. Paul S. Stull by six votes in the GOP primary. Shortly after winning a second term in the House, Schulz was tapped to lead the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation when Hogan took office.

For Hogan’s second term, she moved to the Department of Commerce, which oversees business and job growth and workforce development. The agency is also involved in efforts to help companies impacted by COVID-19.

In launching her campaign, Schulz stressed her administration service and her private sector experience — though she never mentioned the governor by name. But several Republicans said they expect key members of Hogan’s political team to aid her candidacy either informally or in consulting roles, including Red Maverick Media.

Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, said Rutherford’s decision not to run makes it more difficult for Republicans to win next year’s race.

“Regardless of who runs, the chances of the Republican Party holding onto the governorship for a third consecutive election in Maryland is already incredibly slim,” he said. “The chances are very small.”

Within hours of Schulz’s announcement, Democrats signaled they will try to tie her to Trump.

In a statement, a party spokesman called her “another obstructionist Republican standing in the way of progress for Marylanders.”

“Unfortunately for Schulz, who celebrated former President Trump’s win at an inaugural gala, any Republican running for governor won’t be able to get away from Trump’s deeply unpopular and failed record,” party spokesman Zachary Holman added.

Eberly said that while Rutherford might have been able to “scare some other folks from getting into the race” due to his proximity to Hogan, name recognition and access to resources, the same may not be true for Schulz, even with her ties to the popular governor.

But Paul Ellington, a former executive director of the Maryland Republican Party, said that while she may not be as well known as Rutherford statewide, Schulz could be a very solid candidate in both the primary and the general election, and is someone who will connect with party activists thanks to her time on the Frederick GOP central committee.

Ellington said that with Schulz and Glassman on the ballot, Republicans will be fielding serious contenders with potential crossover appeal to independents and Democrats who will benefit GOP candidates in down-ballot elections.

“The state is well-served when you have competitive races,” Ellington said.

Strategists in both parties say Schulz’s potential could depend on the identity of the Democratic nominee. Republicans are sure to try to paint the Democratic candidate as a dangerous socialist and would contrast Schulz as a moderate suburban mom. Democratic opposition researchers will no doubt be scrambling to comb through her five-year voting record in the legislature.

Meanwhile, Steele, Maryland’s first African-American lieutenant governor, said the timing of Schulz’s candidacy has no bearing on his decision-making process.

“I’m going to take my time and do it right,” he said. “At the end of the day, what someone else does really doesn’t change too much what I do.”

By Bruce DePuyt and Josh Kurtz

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Maryland News Tagged With: 2022, boyd rutherford, commerce, election, governor, gubernatorial, kelly schulz, Maryland

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