2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the Baltimore Region

The Baltimore Regional Fair Housing Group, a consortium of local governments and public housing authorities formed under the aegis of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) has been working on regional fair housing planning and implementation issues since 2012. Late in the calendar year 2018, the Fair Housing Group began working on a new Regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing study. After more than 18 months of work with a consultant team led by Root Policy Research, eleven meetings of a Regional AI Stakeholder Work Group, and numerous public hearings and revisions based on public comment, the 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the Baltimore Region (AI) was completed and released in June 2020. This analysis will shape the programs and activities of the participating jurisdictions and agencies over fiscal years 2021 through 2025.

The six jurisdictions and five public housing authorities (PHAs) that, along with the Baltimore Metropolitan Council and the Root Policy Research consultant team, carried out this AI process are:

· City of Annapolis and the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis

· Anne Arundel County and the Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County

· City of Baltimore and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City

· Baltimore County

· Harford County and the Havre de Grace Housing Authority

· Howard County and the Howard County Housing Commission

The participants relied on May 23, 2018, guidance and data that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made publicly available at the time, as well as other locally available data, in carrying out this analysis. The participants voluntarily cooperated regionally and also voluntarily followed the template of the Assessment of Fair Housing created by HUD to implement the July 2015 HUD rule on affirmatively furthering fair housing, even though HUD’s May 2018 guidance withdrew that template as a required element of the analysis. In August 2020, HUD repealed the 2015 rule altogether.

This new AI replaces the 2012 AI that jurisdictions and PHAs implemented over fiscal years 2013 through 2020. Local governments and PHAs have included action steps from the 2020 AI that pertain to their jurisdiction in their Consolidated Plans and PHA plans that began July 1, 2020. Questions concerning the AI process can be directed to BMC’s housing policy coordinator Dan Pontious. However, for questions concerning Baltimore City AI action steps please contact Steve Janes.

2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice in the Baltimore Region

Copies of all Local AIs and the Regional AI are also available at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street, Maryland Room, Baltimore, MD 21201.