Maryland reaches fair housing agreement with federal government

Maryland has agreed to finance the development of 1,500 affordable housing units in prosperous neighborhoods throughout the Baltimore region and rewrite policies that civil rights groups say perpetuated segregation for decades.

The agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development settles a fair-housing complaint brought against the state in 2011 by a coalition of civil rights and fair-housing advocacy organizations.

The coalition accused the state of reinforcing housing segregation through by clustering subsidized, affordable housing developments together and in less desirable areas, rather than spreading them throughout the region. On Tuesday, fair-housing advocates applauded the deal as a significant commitment by the state to improve access for low-income renters to well-off neighborhoods that they have been excluded from in the past.

“What this means is there are going to be more housing options for families with kids in areas that have good schools, other services, and amenities and lower poverty that are are conducive to raising kids,” said Barbara Samuels, a fair-housing attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, which was part of the coalition known as the Baltimore Regional Housing Campaign.

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