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As we move together into June, the half-way point of 2025 many of us continue to wonder, will we be able to afford rent next month? Will we ever qualify for a mortgage on a new home for our family?

If this is something you have thought this year, you are not alone. According to survey data of tens of thousands of Anne Arundel County residents, over 45% of renters are cost burdened, paying over 30% of their income on housing.

19% are paying more than 50% of their income each month on rent! That is one in every five people, struggling to afford the roof over their head. Maybe they skip meals at home to save on food costs, keep the A/C or heating off throughout the year to save on energy, or shower every other day to conserve water. Most would say that it would be better to sacrifice health or hygiene than to end up evicted and homeless.

If you do end up without a home, evicted by a greedy landlord increasing your rent by 50% or refusing to give you a break after an uncaring employer lays you off, you may quickly be branded a criminal. In October of 2024, Councilmember Nathan Volke of the Anne Arundel County introduced and worked through Bill 70-24, which makes it a crime to sleep overnight in a vehicle anywhere in Anne Arundel County.

Sadly, the Anne Arundel County Council continues to fail in addressing the deepening housing crisis. Prices continue to rise, and permits for new units continues to dwindle. Meanwhile, more and more handouts go to wealthy land owners who don’t have to worry about affording rent costs or saving to buy a home someday. Homeowners already have it made.

AA NIMBY Watch will strive to target NIMBY Councilmembers and homeowners to reveal their unceasing efforts to block your shot at the American dream and to bleed you dry with housing costs.

This meeting, she brought some neighbors to block new housing for our working poor.

The tired NIMBY arguments were dragged out once again.

“It is too dense” – the reality is they don’t want anything new anywhere near them. They want you to go away.

“It is well intentioned, but this is not the right place” – Well what is the right place? No matter the neighborhood, they always say it should go somewhere else.

“We need houses but there would be 171 new townhomes, that is so ridiculous. There is so much traffic we can’t handle it.” – The reality is that these same people pay pennies on the dollar in property taxes due to special kickbacks in the form of homestead exemptions that would usually be used to build out traffic capacity. And they vote against any widening of roads, traffic calming, frontage improvements, walkability through density and transit infrastructure, etc.

“These workforce housing should be where the transit is.” – Anne Arundel County does not have any public transit that is legitimately accessible basically anywhere. These people vote against increased bus capacity, bus stops, improvements to bus stops with coverings, sidewalks to get to or from a bus stop, bicycle lanes, etc.

In 2023 Arundel Community Development Services, Inc., a local non-profit, identified that there was a shortage of 12,456 affordable rental units to address the needs of moderate to low income households.

171 townhouses doesn’t even scratch the surface. We need this project to go through, and for more projects like this to get started all over Anne Arundel County.