Revitalizing affordable housing strategies in Baltimore County, MD

Challenge

Like many other communities across the U.S., Maryland’s Baltimore County was facing a severe lack of affordable housing and low development activity. The Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), a relatively new agency, needed to tackle this immense challenge while simultaneously undergoing a period of intense internal growth and transition. As it expanded its initial focus on execution to encompass strategic planning and policymaking, it was in the midst of establishing structured, transparent processes and clear criteria for deal reviews and development guidelines.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore County Office of Housing, which was being absorbed into the DHCD, was working to address this same challenge through its voucher administration program. We were brought on to help navigate this critical internal transition and create a roadmap for both agencies to skillfully address community affordable housing needs.

Approach

We collaborated with the DHCD and the Office of Housing to enhance and modernize two of their existing programs: the Housing Finance Program and Supportive Housing Program. The goal of these programs is to promote attainable housing and deeply affordable units.

For the Housing Finance Program, our team:

• Used data-driven insights to assess the program’s current state by reviewing existing data and finance strategies, conducting extensive stakeholder interviews, defining program goals and oversight, researching leading practices for development such as structure types and tax incentives, and evaluating use of credit enhancements, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds, and payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) options
• Performed a supporting financial analysis that included developing test structures of PILOTs to gauge their performance, creating a list of possible development structures in Baltimore County that may appeal to developers, and testing the viability and public benefits of credit enhancements, tax incentives, and other strategies
• Produced tangible next steps for DHCD to enhance the program, including identifying opportunities for process and performance improvements and conducting financial analyses to inform recommendations

For the Supportive Housing Program, we:

• Assessed the program’s current state to determine approaches for optimizing Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Voucher delivery within the county
• Identified program successes and challenges by interviewing key stakeholders, reviewing the Administrative Plan and other existing documentation, and conducting research on supportive housing program leading practices
• Developed recommendations after identifying pain points and notable opportunity areas, evaluating strategies to explore long-term potential for different vouchers, creating new process maps, and collaborating with DHCD to confirm that the recommendations aligned with the agency’s vision
• Created a future-state roadmap for business process improvement to enhance efficiency and service for vulnerable households across the county

Impact

Working collaboratively, our team provided a framework to enhance and modernize DHCD’s Housing Finance Program and Supporting Housing Program. We also guaranteed that our recommendations included:

• Alignment on revisions to the Administrative Plan to encourage a return to compliance
• Opportunities to expand development options and improve housing choice
• Ways to enhance the county’s Supportive Housing Program processes and collaboration