Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) is to prevent and correct problems that contribute to the physical decline of residential and commercial areas; ensure fair and equitable relations between landlords and tenants; increase the supply of affordable housing; and maintain existing housing in a safe and sanitary condition.

Budget Overview

The total approved FY22 Operating Budget for the Department of Housing and Community Affairs is $61,744,469, an increase of $8,694,296 or 16.39 percent from the FY21 Approved Budget of $53,050,173. Personnel Costs comprise 19.58 percent of the budget for 107 full-time position(s) and no part-time position(s), and a total of 101.20 FTEs. Total FTEs may include seasonal or temporary positions and may also reflect workforce charged to or from other departments or funds. Operating Expenses and Debt Service account for the remaining 80.42 percent of the FY22 budget.

DHCA expects the total signed agreements for affordable housing projects through the PILOT program to abate $19.1 million in taxes in FY21.

In addition, this department's Capital Improvements Program (CIP) requires Current Revenue funding.

County Priority Outcomes

While this program area supports all eight of the County Result Areas, the following are emphasized:

• An Affordable, Welcoming County for a Lifetime
• A Greener County
• Effective, Sustainable Government

Program Performance Measures

Performance measures for this department are included below (where applicable), with multi-program measures displayed at the front of this section and program-specific measures shown with the relevant program. The FY21 estimates reflect funding based on the FY21 approved budget. The FY22 and FY23 figures are performance targets based on the FY22 approved budget and funding for comparable service levels in FY23.

Initiatives

• Provide the highest level of affordable housing funding in the County's history by investing $89.1 million in affordable housing. This includes $61.1 million in the Montgomery Housing Initiative (MHI) Fund, $22 million in the Affordable Housing Acquisition and Preservation CIP project, and $6 million for the new Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund. This increases dedicated funding and provides for renovation of distressed housing, the acquisition and preservation of affordable housing units, creation of housing units for special needs residents, services to the "Building Neighborhoods to Call Home" and "Housing First" programs, and creation of mixed-income housing. Since FY08, $1.14 billion has been invested in support of affordable housing, leveraging $2.21 billion in non-County funding.

• Continue to protect lower-income residents of the Route 29/Castle Boulevard and Purple Line corridors from rent increases by working with nonprofits to identify and preserve at-risk naturally-occurring affordable housing (NOAH) and actively engaging purchasers with Rental Agreements to preserve affordable rents.

• Allocate up to $3 million from the Housing Initiative Fund to support the County's Homeownership Assistance Program for downpayment and closing cost assistance.

• Continue to actively underwrite affordable housing loans to preserve and produce affordable housing. Twelve developments, including three senior and eight family projects, have already been identified with another project up for consideration. These developments would preserve or produce over 1,150 total and 899 affordable units.

• Boost economic growth by funding the Countywide Facade Improvement Program which will revitalize commercial areas throughout Montgomery County with a focus on older commercial property. The objective is to provide support to small business and encourage private investment. Improvements will include gateway signage, pedestrian lighting, connectivity, streetscape elements, plant material installation, acquisition of long term facade and center signage easements, and other amenities. DHCA will initially focus on five targeted commercial areas including Montgomery Village, Hillandale, Downtown Wheaton, the Glenmont, and Layhill Shopping Centers. This program may also be expanded to other areas of the County.

• Collaborate with Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Housing Opportunities Commission (HOC) to provide rental assistance programs to the residents who need it the most. Over 5,550 households are projected to be assisted in FY22. A renewed focus will be on eviction prevention, including targeted assistance and financial literacy seminars in areas experiencing high evictions.

• Continue to receive funding from Federal grants (i.e., Community Development Block Grant - CDBG, the HOME Investment Partnership Grant, and the Emergency Solutions Grant), which provide funding for affordable housing, housing rehabilitation, commercial revitalization, focused neighborhood assistance, public services, and preventing homelessness.

Innovations and Productivity Improvements

• Continued a paperless Energy Efficiency program with streamlined, efficient guidelines and requirements that provides energy-efficient home improvements to income-eligible homeowners.

• Continued efforts to improve data quality by leveraging external services (e.g. for street address validation) as well as other County data repositories. Work is also being carried out to consolidate data repositories across DHCA's core systems to minimize data maintenance work, improve integration, and support drilling across data models.

• Developed data models and dashboards to support the department's on-going Business Intelligence initiative.

• Committed to using cloud-based services in accordance to the County's own vision. The department is already leveraging the County's Azure file storage instance. DHCA's IT team is also exploring Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Cloud to support its application development's activities.

• Planning the deployment of a new Internet-facing affordable housing search application called 'Rental Guide'. The Rental Guide leverages the most recent web application development standards providing users with an intuitive and efficient interface. The application emphasizes speed, accuracy, and responsiveness.

Program Descriptions

  Multi-Family Housing Programs

This program creates and preserves affordable multi-family housing units. Loans are made to the HOC, nonprofit organizations, property owners, and for-profit developers. This program provides funding to: preserve existing affordable housing units; construct and acquire affordable housing units; rehabilitate existing rental housing stock; participate in housing or mixed-use developments that...

  Affordable Housing Programs

This program creates and preserves affordable single-family housing units. It enforces Chapter 25A of the County Code to ensure that Moderately Priced Dwelling Units (MPDUs) are provided and monitored for resale control. The Code requires that 12.5 percent to 15.0 percent of an approved development of 20 dwelling units or...

  Housing Code Enforcement

This program enforces Chapter 26 of the County Code, Housing Maintenance, by inspecting rental condominiums, multi-family apartments, and single-family housing to ensure safe and sanitary conditions; Chapter 48, Solid Wastes; and Chapter 58, Weeds, the County's residential weeds and rubbish codes. Approximately 80 percent of the single-family inspections result from...

  Grants Administration - Federal Programs

Staff provides management and oversight to ensure compliance with all regulatory requirements for Federal funding awarded to Montgomery County by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Community Development Block Grant, the HOME Investment Partnership Grant, and the Emergency Solutions Grant programs. Funds from these programs...

  Landlord-Tenant Mediation

This program ensures fair and equitable relations between landlords and tenants and encourages the maintenance and improvement of housing. Activities including mediating and arbitrating disputes; providing information and technical assistance to all parties; and taking legal action as necessary, including referring unresolved complaints to the Montgomery County Commission on Landlord-Tenant...

  Neighborhood Revitalization

This program provides planning and implementation for neighborhood revitalization in targeted areas. Activities include commercial revitalization (physical and economic) in both local retail centers and central business districts as well as assistance to address other community concerns, including issues related to housing and public services. Primary funding for these activities...

  Licensing and Registration

This program issues licenses to all rental housing (apartments, condominiums, and single-family) and registers all housing units within common ownership communities....

  Housing Administration

This program provides management and oversight to support activities within the housing division including single and multi-family housing programs, and landlord tenant mediation. This program was formerly included as part of Housing Development and Loan Programs....

  Administration

This program provides overall direction, administration, and managerial support to the Department. Activities include budgeting, financial management, asset management, personnel management and administration, program oversight, training, automated systems management, and policy/program development and implementation....

  Common Ownership Community Program

The Common Ownership Community (COC) program ensures fair and equitable relations between the governing bodies of homeowner associations, condominium associations, and cooperatives, and the individuals living within these common ownership communities, and encourages the maintenance and improvement of housing. Activities include mediating and arbitrating disputes; providing information and technical assistance...