Just over a third of Maryland’s State Delegates have signed a letter organized by Silver Spring’s Delegate Jheanelle K. Wilkins calling for rent and mortgage payments to be suspended by Maryland’s Governor Larry P. Hogan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maryland is currently under a state of emergency thanks to the Novel Corona Virus, during which time the state governor (arguably one of the most powerful governorships in the land) has the authority to stay derogatory debts from causing real harm to tenants and homeowners.
Currently, foreclosure actions and evictions have been stayed by the Maryland Court of Appeals and a separate decree by the Governor, who is using his emergency powers as laid out by law to do so. However, staying these legal proceedings does not waive their due payment on the first of every month. In other words, rents and mortgage payments remain due, will compile with interest and late fees, with derogatory credit all but guaranteed. This situation is what has triggered the call by Delegate Wilkins and others for Governor Hogan to further use his emergency powers to waive the collection and due payment of rents and mortgages.
Progressives Lead the Call for Change
Nearly half of formerly prosperous Montgomery County’s state legislators signed on, with a number of signatories being from neighboring, economically ascendant Prince Georges County. Last year, Gorgeous Prince Georges County became Maryland’s dominant economic engine after 12 years of stagnant growth and mismanagement at the highest levels of Montgomery County’s government. The mismanagement of the county’s government led to the arrest and conviction of then-County Executive Ike Leggett’s Chief Economic Advisor for embezzling millions.
Past Foreclosure Crises & Political Indifference
Montgomery County’s economic future has been hazy for some time. Some 12,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the aftermath of The Great Recession. Moreover, during the same spell of time, Maryland was the country’s foreclosure capital as the O’Malley administration did little to assist struggling homeowners through administrative or legislative means. A second wave of the foreclosure epidemic struck in 2014, again with Governor O’Malley doing little to assist Marylanders as he tried to raise his profile for a run for president. Countless Marylanders lost their homes while elected officials looked on at posh fundraising dinners for the re-election campaigns.
Millennials & Diversity Rising
That all began to change in the wake of the 2016 election of Donald Trump. A new, diverse cadre of elected officials emerged victorious in the state’s 2018 elections with a mind to challenge the state’s image as an establishment heartland. Progressive voices in the House of Delegates like Joseline Pena-Melnyk, Wanika K. Fisher, C.T. Wilson, Jheanelle K. Wilkins, and Vaughn Stewart have begun an aggressive campaign to change the harsh unequal realities that Maryland has become known for throughout the country thanks to HBO shows like The Wire and Netflix documentaries such as The Keepers and Dirty Money, not to mention NPR’s Serial Podcast. Few states of Maryland’s population size have had that much continuous negative national coverage in so short a time.
Economic Malaise is now the Maryland Way
Maryland’s economic health is ranked 37th out of 50 in the country by Wallet Hub, and the state’s foreclosure rate was well above the national average months before the COVID-19 crisis. Per the federal government, nearly 5 in 100 homeowners with a mortgage were in foreclosure during the height of the Great Recession a decade ago. Mortgage industry data strongly suggests another foreclosure crisis far greater in scope than the 2008 one is on the horizon as we speak. That suggests that Delegate Wilkins and her colleagues have made the right call to put public interest above private profits.Millennials and Gen Z Marylanders have essentially never seen economic stability in their lifetimes.