New homes construction site. Getty Images photo.
On the evening of Aug. 28, Gov. Wes Moore headlined a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – hardly an unusual event for a popular governor with a growing national profile. What was unusual, was that the group hosting the event, YIMBYs for Harris , was streaming the fundraiser live to an audience of 30,000 who raised over $130,000 for the ticket.
Most Marylanders may not know it, but Moore and his secretary of Housing and Community Development, Jake Day, are bona fide celebrities housing affordability circles. Pro-housing advocates favor increasing the supply of all types of housing and getting rid of onerous regulatory barriers to construction – to bring down rental and home purchase costs for working families and grow our economy in the process.
Housing supply boosters cheered earlier this year when Moore’s signature housing legislation, the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act , passed the House and Senate. The bill makes it easier to build more housing near transit and on government or non-profit-owned land in return for setting aside a portion of units in these new projects as units affordable to those making 60% of the area’s median income.