Maryland housing and borrowing

Gross rent includes contract rent and tenant-paid utilities. Rental protections, assistance, and housing supply concern components of rental-market conditions; they do not set Maryland’s median rent. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Median gross rent. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

​ ​​​​​​​​​​​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts[email protected]410-576-7009BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced that the Civil Rights Division of the Office of the Attorney General has reached a settlement​ with Bay Management Group, LLC (Bay Management) to resolve a claim of racial discrimination that resulted from tenant screening advertisements and applicant-facing materials used for Maryland rental housing that included criminal history language.The Civil Rights Division opened an investigation after receiving information that Bay Management advertised rental housing using phrases such as “clean criminal background check” or similar language. The Division found reasonable cause to believe that this language had a discriminatory effect.“A 'clean background check required' ad is a rejection letter in disguise,” said Attorney General Brown. “It tells people not to bother before they've even applied. This settlement takes that language off the table and requires housing providers to make an individualized assessment, not a blanket rejection based on a single line in an ad.” Housing providers cannot issue a blanket ban on renting to people with a criminal record. Doing so may violate state and federal fair housing laws. A housing provider may only consider a conviction record if it is closely related to whether the person will be a successful tenant. Housing providers must also give applicants a chance to share mitigating information or proof of rehabilitation. Starting October 1, 2026, the Maryland Fair Chance Housing Act will limit how housing providers can consider conviction records and is designed to reduce the racial impact of these screening policies.As part of the settlement, Bay Management will adopt a Civil Rights Division-approved criminal-history screening policy for its Maryland properties. The policy will provide applicants who may be denied based solely on criminal history an opportunity for individualized assessment. Bay Management will also remove “clean criminal background,” “clean criminal history,” and materially similar language from Maryland rental advertisements, qualification criteria, website content, appli

Gross rent includes contract rent and tenant-paid utilities. Rental protections, assistance, and housing supply concern components of rental-market conditions; they do not set Maryland’s median rent. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Median gross rent. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

119 S5298 IS: Delivering Americans Affordable Homes Act U.S. Senate 2026-08-06 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. II119th CONGRESS2d SessionS. 5298IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESAugust 6, 2026Mr. Van Hollen (for himself and Mr. Curtis) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsA BILLTo facilitate the leasing of United States Postal Service property for the development of housing, and for other purposes.1.Short titleThis Act may be cited as the Delivering Americans Affordable Homes Act.2.FindingsCongress finds the following:(1)The United States is facing a housing supply shortage that has resulted in a record number of housing cost-burdened households across regions and spanning the large and small cities, towns, and coastal and rural communities of the United States.(2)The Postal Service has operated with an annual financial loss in each year since fiscal year 2007. In fiscal year 2025, the Postal Service reported a net loss of $9,000,000,000.(3)The Postal Service owns roughly 8,500 parcels of land in communities across the country, many of which are suitable for housing development.(4)The development of housing on land owned by the Postal Service is consistent with its longstanding mission and the delivery of prompt, reliable, and efficient mail services to all communities.(5)In order to generate revenue to improve its financial position, and respond to the national housing supply shortage, it is in the public interest for the Postal Service to pursue opportunities to lease to State, local, and Tribal governments and their development partners those real property rights which would facilitate housing development and which would create new sources of revenue for the Postal Service.3.DefinitionsIn this Act:(1)Eligible housing useThe term eligible housing use means a project to construct new housing units—(A)for which not less than 80 percent of the total net rentable area is exclusively for residential use; and(B)which may include commercial, recreational, or publ

Gross rent includes contract rent and tenant-paid utilities. Rental protections, assistance, and housing supply concern components of rental-market conditions; they do not set Maryland’s median rent. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Median gross rent. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

s Used RealPage to Raise Rent Prices in Violation of the Maryland Antitrust Act BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today named four more landlords in Maryland’s suit against RealPage and residential landlords that used its revenue management software to coordinate prices and raise rents on thousands of Marylanders. The four new defendants are Camden Development Inc., Harbor Group Management Company LLC, Equity Residential Management LLC, and Trinity Property Consultants LLC. “These landlords used RealPage's rent-setting algorithm to drive up housing costs for thousands of Marylanders,” said Attorney General Brown. “Our Office will not stop until we get complete relief for Marylanders, hold these Defendants accountable, and secure guardrails for this technology to protect renters from these costly and unlawful schemes.” These landlords used RealPage software to fix rents at more than 30 apartment buildings in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties, raising rents for thousands of Marylanders by as much as $130 a month. These four new defendants are added to eight of the largest residential landlords in Maryland that were named in the lawsuit when it was filed on January 15, 2025. The defendant landlords are alleged to have unlawfully colluded to raise rents by agreeing to exchange competitively sensitive information and collectively setting rents based on RealPage’s technology that inflated prices, costing renters millions of dollars. The original press release announcing this lawsuit may be read here. The lawsuit is pending in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. ###​​​

Foreign-born residents include naturalized citizens and lawfully and unlawfully present noncitizens. A provision about a particular immigration status concerns only a subset of that population; it does not change a person’s birthplace. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Residents who are foreign-born. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

CUTIVE ORDER 01.01.2026.11 Creation of the Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force WHEREAS, The Maryland immigrant community is a vital part of the State's cultural and economic fabric, with 17% of Maryland's population being foreign born, 9.5% of U.S. -born residents having at least one immigrant parent, and 21.7% of the State's labor workforce being composed of immigrants; WHEREAS, Many immigrant Marylanders have long faced discrimination and substandard services in areas such as consumer and legal services, employment, and housing, due to factors such as language barriers and unfamiliarity with their rights; WHEREAS, The State is committed to protecting all residents from becoming victims of crime, to holding all those who prey on the vulnerable accountable, and to building a safer and more equitable Maryland that leaves no one behind; WHEREAS, The federal government's heightened immigration enforcement actions have further emboldened unscrupulous actors to take advantage of or discriminate against immigrant Marylanders, using new schemes to target immigrants for exploitation; WHEREAS, These rights violations not only harm immigrant individuals and families, they also distort markets, impede fair competition, diminish the safety and security of all Marylanders; and WHEREAS, Addressing fraud and exploitation among immigrant Marylanders requires a whole -of-government approach, with collaboration among State agencies and partnership with the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Comptroller, other State leaders, as well as local governments, community organizations, and the private sector. NOW THEREFORE, I, WES MOORE, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND, BY VIRTUE OF THE AUTHORITY VESTED IN ME BY THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS OF MARYLAND, HEREBY 2 PROCLAIM THE FOLLOWING EXECUTIVE ORDER EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: A. Establishment. 1. There is a Maryland Immigrant Rights Protection Task Force ("Task Force") to address fraud and exploitation of immigrant Marylanders. 2. The Task Force shall be administered by the Maryland Governor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (the "Office"), in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the C

Gross rent includes contract rent and tenant-paid utilities. Rental protections, assistance, and housing supply concern components of rental-market conditions; they do not set Maryland’s median rent. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Median gross rent. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

Requiring the Department of Housing and Community Development, Office of Landlord and Tenant Affairs in consultation with the Attorney General to develop a plan to identify certain severe health and safety risk properties in the State and take related actions; requiring the Department to submit the plan and certain recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly by August 31, 2027; and requiring the Department to publish a list of the names of the severe health and safety risk properties publicly on its website.

Gross rent includes contract rent and tenant-paid utilities. Rental protections, assistance, and housing supply concern components of rental-market conditions; they do not set Maryland’s median rent. This relationship does not establish causation. Actions after the fact’s measurement period cannot explain its earlier value.

Retained Maryland evidence context: Median gross rent. This record’s connection to the topic does not establish an effect on the measured result.

Requiring the Department of Housing and Community Development, Office of Landlord and Tenant Affairs in consultation with the Attorney General to develop a plan to identify certain severe health and safety risk properties in the State and take related actions; requiring the Department to submit the plan and certain recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly by August 31, 2027; and requiring the Department to publish a list of the names of the severe health and safety risk properties publicly on its website.