"Housing Starts Here?" Not in Wes Moore's Maryland
Wes Moore's new Housing Initiative combines warmed-over Glendening-era SmartGrowth initiatives and combines them with Soviet-Style Production Quotas. It's not a recipe for success.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore got off of George Clooney's boat long enough to issue an Executive Order today to deal with the "Housing Crisis":
Governor Wes Moore today signed an executive order to increase housing production across the state. The order improves the use of state-owned land to create more efficient development, reduce state permitting timelines, and bring more homes to market faster in an effort to tackle housing affordability and promote the Moore-Miller Administration’s commitment to addressing Maryland’s 96,000 unit housing shortage across the state.
“When we talk about housing that’s more affordable, we’re not just talking about building shelter; we’re talking about building a legacy,” said Gov. Moore. “That’s why we need to move faster to build new homes, move faster to make housing more affordable, and move faster to create a housing market that is more competitive. That’s the vision of this executive order, and our success will be felt for generations to come.”
The “Housing Starts Here” executive order:
Directs the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the Maryland Department of General Services, to identify specific state-owned properties for transit-oriented development, paving the way for more homes for Maryland families to be built through improving the use of state-owned land.
Promotes government efficiency by reducing state permitting timelines, bringing more homes to market faster while improving the transparency of jurisdictional housing production.
Creates a new state housing ombudsman to act as a liaison between the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and other state agencies, local governments, developers, local communities, and other stakeholders to assist in the permitting process—ensuring development projects continue without delay.
Directs the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to work with local jurisdictions to create housing production targets for the state, each county, and each municipality with planning/zoning authority. The production targets are to be published in January 2026 and updated every five years.
Establishes annual Maryland Housing Leadership Awards to recognize jurisdictions that make progress on their housing development goals. The awards give jurisdictions bonus points that increase their competitiveness when applying for funding programs through the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.
“More housing is the key to a more affordable Maryland,” said Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day. “Governor Moore’s executive order will spur housing growth and means more people can live, work and raise their families in our great towns and cities.”
You'll forgive me if I am not nearly as enthused by the idea of a "Housing Starts Here" initiative. Partially because it's a problem that, ultimately, does not exist at all.
First, let's start with the nuts and bolts of the Executive Order itself, which combines bad ideas from the past with new bad ideas for the future.
First, the order instructs the Department of General Services to make state owned land available for "transit-oriented development.' If that sounds like a warmed-over retread from the Parris Glendening-era SmartGrowth initiatives, it's because it is. Maryland Democrats are continuing to promote policies that seek to force Marylanders to live in high-rise apartment buildings like sardines, surrounded by nothing by Mass Transit and concrete. It's a hellacious way to live that eliminates the concept of consumer choice.
Second, it creates a new layer of Government in the "State Housing Ombudsman." The fact Maryland would consider creating a new, high-dollar government job to make sure the other government agencies are doing their job proves the point that many of us have been making for years: that Maryland government is bloated and inefficient.
Third, Moore is establishing Soviet-style "production" quotas that dictate how many new housing units each county and town produce on a yearly basis. Why? Who really knows, but Moore and his henchmen are seeking to take local control away from zoning and housing decisions and consolidate it at the state level.
Fourth, it incentivizes sprawl and overbuilding through the creation of a fakakta "awards" system that give jurisdictions bonus points that increase their competitiveness when applying for funding programs. So basically, you will not get any Housing or Community based grants unless your county or municipality follows the strict, Soviet-style edicts on Housing construction and creating an overabundance of housing stock.
The only positive development here is streamlining permitting times, but that is hardly a positive outcome when you consider Wes Moore's vision for an unlivable Maryland full of concrete, asphalt, impermeable surfaces, and devoid of nature.
What's equally alarming is that Executive Order does nothing to protect natural areas from urban sprawl and development. The Executive Order merely states that projects should be "transit-oriented" and that the Department of Transportation, General Services, and Housing should work together to find "suitable" places for Transit-Oriented development.
Nothing in the Executive Order stops Wes Moore or his cabinet from deciding that Calvert Cliffs State Park or Sandy Point State Park of Assateague Island State Park is ripe to be paved over to build a high-rise.
Lost in the sauce about the "Housing Crisis" is determining what a housing crisis is in the first place. The Moore Administration claims that the state is "short" by x number of housing units. At least that’s what The Baltimore Banner tells us.
Housing production has slowed dramatically across the country, a trend that started following the Great Recession; not one state has enough supply. It’s evolved into a top priority for Maryland voters, who have reported to pollsters that they are feeling pinched by high home costs, rents and utility bills. It’s estimated Maryland could be short a minimum of 96,000 homes or as many as 150,000.
You mean to tell me that Maryland needs 150,000 new homes? For who? Who makes that determination? Where are these people now? Are these people homeless or are these people that Moore just assumes will randomly turn up in Maryland someday?1 Because I assure you, people are not avoiding Maryland due to the housing crisis; they are avoiding it because of the budget, tax, and public safety crises that are currently occurring. Consumers may be pinched by high home costs, rents, and utility bills but those are as much a function of Wes Moore’s incompetence and short-sighted economic policies as they are a shortage in the number of Housing units.
Trust me, there are plenty of "transit-oriented" areas for housing in Baltimore City right now. But nobody wants to take the time to redevelop those properties because Baltimore's economy is depressed and because nobody feels safe there. The fact that no elected Democrats take either the economic or crime problems in Baltimore seriously speaks as to why people are hesitant to move to Baltimore save for a few enclaves.
It’s not just Baltimore, though. Why not Cumberland? Why not Salisbury? Why not Frederick? There are plenty of abandoned homes in cities and towns across Maryland that could be redeveloped right now. If Moore is so gung ho about making housing more affordable, why not spend more time focused on revitalizing the existing housing stock instead of building new Soviet-style block housing by clearing empty lots and state-owned natural areas?
If you believe there is a housing crisis, there are real steps that Maryland could take to help. It starts with cleaning up crime in Baltimore City. Then it involves fixing Maryland's economy through lower taxes, eliminating taxes on retirement, and policies that promote job creation, not stifle it. Without those basic features, Moore's "affordable housing" order is just more big government nonsense that will create far more problems than it solves.
Wes Moore thinks his new initiative means that “Housing Starts Here.” But only if you consider the failed policies of the past as housing and a paved-over, dystopian future as progress.
You would think that The Banner, still pretending to be a credible newspaper instead of the Democratic Party Rag, would at least pay lip-service to finding out about this stuff. But if they did they didn’t bother to share this crucially important piece of information in their piece.