By Troy Rolling
The Maryland Statehouse and Montgomery Council are moving forward with legislation intended to ban the algorithmic software that the housing industry uses to obtain pricing estimates on the apartments and homes they list for rent in The Old-Line State.
While the legislation’s sponsors introduced the bills with the intent of lowering housing costs and protecting the most vulnerable Marylanders in their communities, instate economic empowerment organizations and traditional civil rights activists have expressed concerns that the regulations will backfire and hurt the very people they are intending to help.
“As these proposals move forward, economic empowerment advocates warn that policies intended to lower housing costs may instead reduce housing availability if their broader impacts are not carefully considered.”
The bills in question are Maryland House Bill 34, introduced by Delegates Julie Palakovich Carr and Vaughn Stewart, and The Montgomery Council’s Algorithmic Price Fixing Act, introduced by Councilmember Will Jawondo.
In a Feb. 2 memorandum, Councilmember Jawondo wrote, “this legislation is about promoting free markets in the rental housing market.” But certain public policy critics see things differently.
In a Feb. 9 letter sent to the House Economic Matters Committee, Ms. Kennedie Stepp, Vice President of the Talbot County Chapter of Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, argued that these tools help minority communities by ensuring the affordable housing supply is adequately keeping up with demand — and that banning these AI tools may lead to higher rents for underprivileged communities.
“Research from University of Pennsylvania economists shows that during economic downturns, landlords using these tools lowered rents and achieved better occupancy than those who did not, helping markets adjust more smoothly and protecting renters from sharper disruptions,” she wrote.
“Banning tools that promote responsive pricing and higher occupancy could lead to more vacant units, weaker incentives for new affordable housing developments, fewer investments in vulnerable communities, and ultimately higher rents as the housing shortage persists or worsens,” she continued.
When the Maryland attorney general’s office previously acted against this algorithmic housing software, economic empowerment activist who served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, similarly expressed criticism.
“Blaming software for the high price of rent is akin to blaming the thermometer because you have a fever,” he wrote in The Baltimore Sun at the time. “The simple truth is that the government could outlaw this software tomorrow and rents would stay the same as no software can extinguish the law of supply and demand.”
In a press release, the Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance, a grassroots organization dedicated to supporting and strengthening the Black family and promoting economic opportunity for all, sang from a similar song sheet. The organization, which focuses on freedom and economic empowerment in urban communities, has increasingly warned that policies which unintentionally restrict housing supply often have the greatest impact on working-class families and communities already facing limited housing options. It argued that acting against this software will “make it even more difficult for Black families to rise above their state’s alarming housing access and affordability crisis.”
Troy Rolling, the organization’s president, said that such regulations on this housing algorithmic technology “will discourage even more builders and landlords from maintaining rental properties here, further limiting the number of units available while increasing their costs.”
This issue is so important to the communities that we serve we see voices from across the ideological spectrum speaking out.
Both HB34 and The Algorithmic Price Fixing Act are awaiting further legislative action. Housing experts note that markets often respond to policy uncertainty well before laws take effect, meaning investment and development decisions made today can influence housing availability months or even years into the future. The former is scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 19.
Troy Rolling is President & CEO of The Frederick Douglass Freedom Alliance.
