Maryland housing chief warns of 100,000‑unit shortfall, urges zoning and permitting overhaul

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 affected, with polling that he cited showing high levels of concern about homeownership affordability.

Why permitting and zoning matter

Day identified two central barriers: local zoning that restricts denser, lower‑cost housing—he said only about 11 percent of Maryland residential land is zoned for medium or high density—and permitting timelines that can stretch for years. “Permitting processes in Maryland make multiyear investments challenging,” he said, noting that some jurisdictions average 48 months for approvals.

Day argued that supply and regulatory certainty must be addressed together. He recommended a menu of actions for state and local governments: allow more small‑footprint and townhome development in residential areas, reduce parking and certain prescriptive design requirements, expand manufactured and modular housing by right, digitize permitting, enable simultaneous multi‑agency reviews, and permit third‑party reviewers to reduce elapsed approval time.

“Reforming Maryland’s permitting process to reduce approval timelines by 25 percent could boost housing production by up to a third,” Day said, citing academic studies tying local review delays to reduced permit issuance.

Protecting renters and the environment

Committee members asked whether faster approvals or zoning relaxations would endanger tenant protections or environmental safeguards. Day said the state’s recent legislative package has tried to pair supply measures with renter protections: “There are policies that exist that put those two things in conflict, like rent stabilization, if not designed correctly,” he said, adding that reforms should preserve core public‑policy objectives while increasing housing production.

Federal and state tools

Day described existing tools and recent actions: the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act (passed in 2024) and the governor’s Housing Starts Here executive order, which requires DHCD and other state agencies to digitize permitting and implement simultaneous review for state steps by March. He also said federal HUD grants received by the state will be used to incentivize local jurisdictions that demonstrate permitting innovations.

What comes next

Day told the committee that DHCD will continue monthly engagement with local housing and planning officials to share best practices and to use grant incentives for local innovation. He said the agency will work on reducing its own internal timelines for financing affordable projects and that state proposals to boost funding for rental housing works and tax credit administration will be part of the coming year’s agenda.

The briefing moved to a question‑and‑answer session after Day’s remarks; members raised issues including adequate public facilities ordinances, institutional investor purchases of single‑family homes, and how to preserve safety and environmental protections while shortening review timelines.