Prince George's County convenes regional working lunch to coordinate on housing, transit and social services

Prince George's County Council Chair Chris Sorieva hosted a regional legislative working lunch on Feb. 25 to solicit high‑level priorities from neighboring jurisdictions and regional partners and to lay the groundwork for ongoing interjurisdictional collaboration.

Council Chair Sorieva opened the session by asking representatives from the District of Columbia, Montgomery County and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to describe their top issues and areas for potential partnership. Phil Mendelson, chair of the D.C. Council, said D.C. faces a challenging federal relationship and an expected budget that may require “hundreds of millions” in cuts; he also raised concerns about ICE enforcement in the city and noted recent multi‑year drops in violent crime. Will Jawando, an at‑large Montgomery County councilmember, pressed for coordinated responses to potential federal program rollbacks, including Medicaid and SNAP, and noted a roughly $5 billion capital backlog for Montgomery County schools.

Monica Nunez of the Council of Governments outlined regional priorities that affect Prince George's County directly: an 18‑month DMV Moves process that recommends additional Metro capital funding, an advocacy push for $460 million in Metro capital, and efforts to improve ticket reciprocity across Maryland, D.C. and Virginia to reduce unpaid citations that can leave unsafe drivers on the road. Nunez also flagged possible HUD funding changes that could immediately affect homeless services in the region.

Throughout the session, council members raised cross‑border operational issues: policing cooperation on long‑running problems along Eastern Avenue, the need for coordinated stormwater and watershed mitigation in the Anacostia basin, and opportunities to better serve students who commute across jurisdictional lines. Participants repeatedly emphasized practical, near‑term tools — shared dashboards for crime trends, mutual agreements for shelter capacity, and pooled technical assistance — alongside longer term policy solutions.

Chair Sorieva proposed forming an internal working group to meet regularly over the next year to pursue these items and share policy models and staff contacts. The county will follow up on specific proposals (including a possible legislative package to address entitlement timing and a county working group on housing trust fund strategies), and the council planned committee work to translate the conversation into concrete budget or legislative steps.

The meeting closed with a transition to a dedicated housing presentation, after which council members and panelists continued detailed discussion on shelter capacity, preservation tools and financing models.

The working lunch generated commitments to further information sharing and follow‑up rather than binding agreements; the next procedural steps are the formation of the proposed internal working group and follow‑through by county staff on the items raised.