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Thriving and Healthy Residents

Increase number of available affordable housing units that are sold to income eligible households by 70% by 2025

347 

FY21 Actual


FY20 Actual
328

Objective Description

With the County’s prime geographical location between Washington D.C and Baltimore, its renowned schools and overall prosperity comes the constant demand for housing. This has led to a growing imbalance between household incomes and housing costs, especially among those households that have moderate to low incomes. The Moderate Income Housing Unit (MIHU) Ownership Program along with the related Settlement Downpayment Loan Program (SDLP) are two initiatives that were implemented to help address the growing housing affordability needs. The MIHU Ownership program requires that developers of new housing in targeted zoning areas sell a portion of their units at a reduced price, as calculated per County code, to households of moderate income. Because approximately half of the homebuyers in the MIHU program are also in need of settlement downpayment assistance, the SDLP program has become a vital component to the success of the MIHU Program. Combined, these two programs help address a portion of the County’s housing affordability issue.

Trend Analysis

There is an expectation that going forward the number of MIHU units will continue to grow but not at the rate originally anticipated. This growth, once projected to be an additional 339 townhouses and condo units between the years 2022 and 2029, has been revised down to 210 because of effects of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) which limits the number of units that can be developed in accordance with the availability of adequate infrastructure such as roads and schools. The implementation of APFO will be in effect from 2021 to 2025. The baseline year for target completion is FY 2018.

Strategies

  • Aggressively market the MIHU throughout the community and with employers.
  • Continue providing financial education classes to qualify residents for the MIHU Program.
  • Howard County, with input from a diverse group of community members is currently requesting proposals to develop a Housing Opportunities MasterPlan with an overarching goal of identifying the County’s affordability issues and needs along with strategies to address them.

Source: Howard County Department of Housing and Community Development

Target = 480

Detailed Analysis


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