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Maryland housing chief warns of 100,000‑unit shortfall, urges zoning and permitting overhaul
Summary
Secretary Jake Day told the House Environment and Transportation Committee that Maryland has underbuilt for more than a decade, producing an estimated housing gap near 100,000 units. He urged zoning changes and permitting reforms—digitization, simultaneous review and reduced fees—to speed housing production while protecting tenant and environmental safeguards.
Jake Day, secretary of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, told the House Environment and Transportation Committee on Dec. 9 that the state is facing a chronic underbuilding problem that has produced an estimated shortfall of nearly 100,000 housing units and pushed many residents into unaffordable housing.
“The key takeaway,” Day said in the committee briefing, “Maryland is not building enough homes and has not been building enough homes for more than 15 years.” He pointed to permit and production trends dating to the 2008 downturn and said the state currently issues about 40 percent fewer residential building permits than it did in 2008.
Day framed the challenge as a supply problem with measurable consequences: roughly half of Maryland renters are cost‑burdened, and only 49 percent of households could afford the state’s median home price in 2022 (down from 75 percent in 2000). He said younger workers are particularly…
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