News & Updates

Several tenant relief efforts failed in the last hours of the 2021 legislative session Monday, drawing condemnation from fair housing advocates who say the state isn’t doing enough to stop evictions — particularly during the pandemic.

Losak said the CDC moratorium does not address tenant holdovers, which according to the Maryland court system, allows landlords to remove tenants when their lease is over so long as they provide written notice in advance.

“Every day I wake up in an apartment building where at least 20 people have been carted out of here and have died due to a pandemic,” she said. “They’ve died because the buildings they live in, this building is dirty, is ill maintained. But yet this building, the people who own this building and manage it, they’re continuing to profit from federal funds. And this is unconscionable. So it is now to take action.” Guthrie said her situation represents what tenants behind on rent are experiencing across the state.

Zafar Shah, a housing attorney with the Public Justice Center, said, “Nearly four in ten Maryland households are behind on rent and report that they are very likely or somewhat likely to leave their home due to eviction in the next two months. And, notably, that figure is 55% for Black households.”

Renters United Maryland says there are less than three weeks left in the legislative session and are calling on lawmakers to act.

“It is not unreasonable to expect that we would use the 800 million dollars that has come to Maryland to provide for rental assistance to ask landlord to take that money to continue to keep people housed just for the emergency, “ said Molly Amster with Jews United for Justice