This past Wednesday, I testified in person at the Howard County Council’s first public hearing on the HoCo By Design general plan update. While I ran short on time and had to skip over a few parts toward the end, this was largely what I stated (and sent) to the Council:
Good evening, council members. My name is Jennifer Solpietro, and I am on the Board of Directors of the Howard Progressive Project and a member of the Howard County Housing Affordability Coalition. I am a resident of Harper’s Choice Village in Columbia, in District 4.
Some of you on the dais may have cringed when you saw my name, given that I’ve aimed plenty of criticism your way in recent years. But I’m hoping that you’ll hear me out, because I’m here testifying in person, for the first time ever, to show you that I’m here in good faith to ask you to do more for affordable housing.
Last month, I was at a doctor’s office at Howard County General Hospital. As I waited to be seen, I overheard the nurses and technicians chatting together. One woman asked another how her house hunting was going, and she said, “We finally found one out in Mount Airy…we couldn’t afford to buy anything here.”
I wondered to myself how many other people in Howard County face similar struggles when it comes to housing affordability.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development defines “affordable housing” as costing no more than 30% of a household’s gross income. In Howard County, more than 13,000 households pay more than 30% of their gross income on rent. Six thousand eight hundred of them pay 50% or more. The waiting period for a Housing Choice voucher – if you managed to get on the waitlist before it closed in 2012 – is a decade. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate for subsidized units in Howard County is currently – and perpetually – zero.
I’d like to ask you to imagine for a second what that’s like. Imaging having to live by the mantra “the rent eats first,” forgoing not just non-essentials, but also basic essentials, just to afford rent. Imaging living with the constant stress of knowing that falling behind on the rent is the first step into the quicksand of eviction and homelessness. Forget about getting a subsidized unit – there aren’t nearly enough of them. And forget about the dream of homeownership – you can’t afford to buy a home here, and you can’t afford to save money for one, either. All you can do is work as many hours as you can and make difficult budgetary choices to ensure you keep a roof over your family’s head.
As of this writing, there are 548 students in the Howard County Public School System – enough to fill an average middle school – who are currently living the nightmare of homelessness. Scores more HCPSS students live in households who are one car breakdown, one medical catastrophe, or one lost job away from meeting that same fate. Many of these HCPSS students have jobs – not for earning spending money, or to save for college, but to help their families pay the rent every month. Imagine what it’s like to be them.
And then imagine one of the many zoning board meetings or county council hearings where one affluent Howard County homeowner after another sits at the microphone to testify as to why affordable housing must wait, because we have enough housing already, or our schools are too overcrowded. And finally, imagine watching your county council representative vote against a subsidized housing development or vote for a policy change that will add yet another barrier to building the very kind of affordable housing that you and your children need.
How do you feel right now?
Councilmembers, these people and families who struggle like this are your constituents. They are our neighbors. They are our children’s classmates and friends. They are hard-working, taxpaying citizens of this county who deserve to have their basic human need for shelter to be treated as a priority by their government so that they can achieve the American dream.
HoCo By Design is your opportunity as a legislative body to elevate the voices of our homeless, housing-insecure, and rent-burdened neighbors, and finally treat affordable housing as the basic infrastructure that it is.
As Matthew Desmond said in his book, Evicted, “Without a home, everything else falls apart.”
Thank you.
– Howard County Council public hearing testimony, June 14, 2023
The next public hearing on HoCo By Design is July 19, 2023 at 7 PM. We need a diverse set of voices to share their thoughts to make it a truly inclusive and democratically vetted plan for our community. Either send your thoughts to councilmail@howardcountymd.gov, or sign up to testify in-person or virtually at the next public hearing.
We all have a stake in our community – so let’s all stand up and be heard.