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Residents and housing advocates urge Council to reverse cuts and boost affordable-housing funding
Summary
Long Branch residents, housing counselors and Montgomery Housing Alliance speakers told the Council to expand eviction-prevention funds, mobile legal services and preservation funding, warning pipeline projects could be derailed if FY27 allocations fall short.
A stream of residents and housing advocates told the Montgomery County Council that proposed FY27 funding for affordable housing and eviction-prevention programs is insufficient and risks displacing vulnerable families.
"We cannot allow illness to become a sentence to homelessness in one of the wealthiest counties in the country," Phoebe Hernandez, a Long Branch resident, told the council, urging expansion of emergency assistance and a mobile legal-advisory office to help tenants facing eviction.
Maria Moran of the Long Branch Housing Action Team requested increased funding for nonprofit service providers, naming Linkages to Learning, Catholic Charities, Casa and TES Center as critical supports that are struggling to meet demand. Moran cited judicial-eviction statistics presented to the council and community data showing households receiving notices.
Mary Koller of Montgomery Housing Alliance said the FY27 pipeline contains projects that require $169,000,000 in preservation and development funding; she said the proposed budget includes roughly $100,000,000, which could derail projects ready to close in FY27. "If the council does not increase funding levels for preservation and development, the pipeline will be significantly disrupted," Koller said.
Housing counselors and people with lived experience, including Carmen Castro Conroy and Christine Pomm, described how programs such as Housing Initiative Partnership and rental-assistance efforts helped them avoid homelessness and urged the council to maintain or increase funding for programs such as CHARP and RAP.
There was no formal vote at the hearing. Council committee deliberations scheduled in the coming weeks will determine whether and how to adjust funding levels in the FY27 budget.
