This is not an accident. It is the predictable result of policy choices that have prioritized Wall Street profits over working families. And it is exactly what I intend to change as your District 6 County Council representative.
Housing stability is the foundation of everything else. When people are secure in their homes, they can focus on their kids' education, advance in their careers, build community ties, and invest in the future. When they are not — when they are one rent hike away from displacement — everything else suffers. Here is how we change that.
Stopping Predatory Rent Hikes: Regulating Corporate Investors
Over the past decade, corporate investment firms — often backed by private equity and hedge funds — have purchased tens of thousands of rental homes across the country, including right here in Prince George's County. These are not small landlords trying to make ends meet. These are financial entities whose business model depends on extracting maximum rent from tenants while minimizing maintenance and investment in properties.
The result? Residents who have called District 6 home for decades find themselves priced out of their own neighborhoods. And because these investors operate at scale, even a modest rate of vacancy does not hurt them — it can actually serve their interests by keeping supply tight and rents high.
As County Council member, I will push for meaningful regulation of corporate rental investors. This includes requiring disclosure of corporate ownership of residential properties, establishing accountability measures for investor-landlords who repeatedly fail to maintain safe and habitable conditions, and working with state legislators to strengthen tenant protections against sudden, unmanageable rent increases. We must also close loopholes that allow shell companies to obscure who actually owns our neighborhoods.
This is not about punishing property investment — it is about ensuring that the rental market works for the people who live in our community, not just those who profit from it at a distance.
Building the Right Kind of Housing: Diverse, Long-Term Development
Addressing the housing crisis is not just about controlling costs — it is also about increasing supply in ways that actually serve our residents. Too much of the development that has come to PG County in recent years has been luxury units priced out of reach for the majority of District 6 families, or short-term housing that does not foster stable communities.
We need a different approach. New development in District 6 should prioritize a mix of housing types — affordable rentals, workforce housing, and homes designed for long-term owner-occupancy. This means working with developers who are willing to partner with the county on community benefit agreements, ensuring that when new buildings go up, local residents actually benefit.
I will advocate on the County Council for zoning and permitting policies that encourage mixed-income development, incentivize developers to include affordable units, and give the county stronger tools to direct where and how growth happens. Development should serve the community — not the other way around.
I will also fight to protect existing affordable housing stock. Too many units that were once affordable have been converted, renovated, or demolished without adequate replacement. Every affordable unit that disappears makes our housing challenge harder to solve.
Expanding Pathways to Homeownership
Homeownership has historically been one of the most reliable ways for American families to build wealth — and for too long, Black and brown families in communities like ours have been systematically excluded from those opportunities, through redlining, discriminatory lending, and policies that concentrated investment in other communities.
That legacy is real, and we cannot ignore it. But we also cannot wait for the federal government to fix it. At the county level, there is meaningful action we can take right now.
I will advocate for expanded down-payment assistance programs that help first-time buyers in District 6 bridge the gap between what they have saved and what today's market requires. I will fight for interest rate assistance initiatives that make homeownership financially viable for working families, even in a high-rate environment. And I will work to connect prospective buyers with financial counseling, credit-building resources, and community land trust models that make homeownership more accessible without compromising long-term affordability.
The dream of owning a home in the community where you grew up, where your family is rooted, where your children go to school — that dream should not be the exclusive privilege of the wealthy. In District 6, we are going to fight to make it a reality.
Housing stability is not a luxury issue. It is the bedrock of everything we want to build together. When I am on the County Council, it will be treated that way.