preserving the quality of life in Olney, Maryland

Affordable Housing Information

All master plans, including the Olney Master Plan, include locations suitable for affordable housing. 

Current county initiatives

Housing Montgomery Plan on Planning Board Website

Summary of the Housing Montgomery Plan

County Council report: The MPDU Program -- A 30 Year Review (caution: large file)

Articles and Letters

County Executive Doug Duncan and Council President Steve Silverman Share Their Thoughts on Affordable Housing.  Click to see an October 15, 2004 Washington Post article titled "A Push for Affordable Housing" in which Doug Duncan vows to build 1,000 affordable housing units over the next four years on county owned property and an October 24, 2004 editorial by Steve Silverman titled "Middle Class and Priced Out of Montgomery."  In addition, see a letter written by Doug Duncan in response to a letter by a person who requested that no more county owned school sites are to be surplussed for housing.  An article titled "Affordable housing hard to come by in Montgomery County" was published in the Gazette on November 19, 2004.

A Washington Times article (11/5/04) discusses affordable housing.  Click here for the full article. Here is an excerpt:

"Why is the affordable-housing crunch so severe in the suburbs? To some extent, it is because of county planning, says Conrad Egan, president of the National Housing Conference.  "The trend is due in part to deliberate policies to grow more jobs than housing," he says.  Critics of such policies see them as a recipe for sprawl — the very problem they were enacted to remedy.  Essentially, counties such as Fairfax and Montgomery want more workers than they are willing to house. Why? Residential workers mean increased costs in the form of school construction, hiring teachers, etc.  More houses are viewed by many residents as visible evidence of the growth they don't want in their neighborhoods.  Residents demand that their elected officials enact policies to slow the rate of housing growth."

Testimony before the Board of Education (5/3/04) by Wayne Goldstein (Montgomery County Civic Federation Housing Committee) titled "Is It the Job of MCPS to Provide Affordable Housing?"