Maryland

Maryland could pass two big tenant protections in this General Assembly session

Published

1 year ago

April 3, 2023

Maryland could pass two big tenant protections in this General Assembly session

Residential constructing in Bethesda by John Brighenti licensed below Inventive Commons.

The Maryland Basic Meeting will wrap up April 10, that means that potential state legal guidelines have one week to get handed. However two payments with vital tenant protections stand a powerful likelihood of changing into regulation and would do a whole lot of good to make lives higher for renters in Montgomery County and the remainder of Maryland.

HB691, the Tenant Security Act, handed the Home by a decisive margin and reforms the hire escrow course of. Lease escrow is the place tenants pay their hire right into a court docket managed fund, relatively than to a landlord, to legally withhold hire as a result of failure to make applicable repairs to a constructing. The invoice would make it simpler for tenants to take this measure collectively for a similar building-wide challenge, relatively than needing to arrange their very own particular person escrow accounts.

This variation to permit tenants to behave collectively could appear fundamental, however it’s a highly effective measure. It’s straightforward for landlords to divide and conquer with particular person tenants performing on their very own, retaliating and forcing them to mount their very own particular person authorized circumstances. Tenants are susceptible to being overwhelmed, working out of sources, and never getting their rightful day in court docket.

The Tenant Security Act has already handed the Home and awaits passage within the Senate. One other key piece of laws, HB36/SB100, would cease unlicensed (and thus illegally working) landlords from utilizing a streamlined hire court docket course of to evict tenants. The primary precept behind this invoice, variations of which have handed each homes, is easy: If you’ll use the usual authorized course of to evict tenants, you ought to be working legally.

If unlicensed landlords are handled the identical as these with a license, it incentivizes all landlords to easily ignore licensing necessities. This impression is just not restricted to the eviction course of both, because it’s not laborious to examine a landlord who doesn’t have a license ignoring different necessities, together with fundamental security measures and mitigation of well being hazards.

HB36 seeks to shut a loophole opened by a current Maryland Supreme Court docket case, Velicky v. Copycat, that stated landlords don’t want a license to convey “tenant holding over” circumstances (the place the owner permits a lease to run out and doesn’t prolong a brand new one to the tenant) to eviction court docket. In a dissent to that call, judges famous that “this loophole presents an apparent danger of hazard to tenants, as unlicensed landlords could now use tenant holding over actions…to get better hire and possession of property and lease the property once more, with little incentive to remove hazards on the premises and acquire licenses.”

However HB36 does exempt the licensure requirement in circumstances the place the owner can present they don’t have a license as a result of a constructing failing to fulfill customary from the wrongful acts of a tenant. That’s a great distance of claiming that if the one factor preserving a landlord from getting a license is their tenant, that won’t hold them from utilizing the eviction course of.

Why these payments matter

These legal guidelines will make a distinction, and be a significant step in correcting the facility imbalance that usually exists between renters and their landlords, one thing I’ve seen firsthand. I’ve canvassed in a constructing with long-neglected repairs. I’ve attended conferences with teams who spend day after day making an attempt to compel landlords to make repairs on fundamental gadgets that jeopardize their tenants’ well being. As a member of Renters United Maryland I’ve been to an occasion in assist of this laws, the place a person who makes use of a wheelchair defined how each time a fireplace alarm goes off in his constructing, he makes peace with the very fact he may not make it out alive if it’s not a drill as a result of the elevator in his constructing has been damaged for months.

There may be all the time some worry that renter protections have a possible destructive impression on the event and basic availability of housing for individuals to hire out within the first place. Nevertheless, the Tenant Security Act doesn’t add broad new areas of alternative for tenants to sue over, it simply permits them to do it collectively, and HB36 merely makes it more durable for landlords which can be working illegally to make use of the authorized system to implement their desired authorized plan of action. If that’s too massive of an ask, I don’t even know what we’re doing right here.

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Maryland

Partial victory in effort to preserve historic Black cemetery in Maryland

Published

6 hours ago

September 6, 2024

Press Room

Partial victory in effort to preserve historic Black cemetery in Maryland – NBC4 Washington

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Maryland

Maryland issues a new suicide prevention action plan for schools, families – WTOP News

Published

13 hours ago

September 5, 2024

Press Room

Maryland issues a new suicide prevention action plan for schools, families – WTOP News

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24 in Maryland. That’s according to a new suicide prevention action plan produced through the state’s Department of Health.

Scott Poland, the director of the Office of Suicide and Violence Prevention at Nova Southeastern University College of Psychology, talked to WTOP about the action plan he authored with his wife, Donna, who is a career educator.

The “Maryland Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in K-12 Schools” serves as a reference guide to school administrators and the community, and was developed in cooperation with the state health department’s Office of Suicide Prevention.

Poland said one thing that surprises people is that children as young as 8 years old may consider taking their own lives.

“I hear from school personnel all around the country (asking if they) have to take it seriously (if a fourth or fifth grader is talking about suicide). And the answer is absolutely yes,” Poland said.

Among the data points in the action plan is a survey of students in the “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey of 2021/2022.” According to that survey, 21% of high school students “seriously considered suicide” in the past year, and 27% of middle schoolers considered suicide at some point in their lives.

Poland said it’s important to talk about suicide with young people, and that the idea that talking about it might encourage a young person to consider suicide is a “myth.”

“When we actually bring it up, it gives someone a chance to unburden themselves, to realize that they’re not alone, that there are alternatives and that there is help available,” Poland said.

But he said young people are most susceptible to imitating suicidal behavior: “It is important that we not glorify the suicide victim.”

Instead, Poland said, the emphasis after a suicide should be on healing those affected and helping them find appropriate ways to deal with their emotions and mental health.

The plan released this week includes providing intervention action plans for a young person who may be considering suicide.

“Part of that, of course, is removing lethal means and developing a written safety plan with them,” he said.

Poland said that can include helping people understand “the importance of calling 988, doing things that can calm themselves down,” and reaching out to the nearest trusted adult.

People can reach the national resource for crisis response services and suicide prevention by dialing 988.

Poland said social media is “wreaking havoc” on children’s emotional well-being, often making them feel “not smart enough, not rich enough, not good enough.” Poland said he’s currently working with the state of South Dakota on developing tools to help “young people be a little more mindful and make better decisions about their screen time.”

Poland said parents can help — when it comes to the hours and hours that many people spend online — by modeling healthy amounts of screen time themselves. And he said adults need to think about how they introduce technology to their kids.

“We’re in too (much of) a hurry to give kids smartphones and 24-hour internet access,” Poland said.

“I really have to compliment Maryland,” Poland said, on coming up with the new plan.

Poland said Maryland does not have an especially high rate of suicide, but “I think we all recognize that losing one young person to suicide is one too many.”

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Maryland

Getting to know Michigan State football’s Week 2 opponent: Maryland

Published

20 hours ago

September 5, 2024

Press Room

Getting to know Michigan State football’s Week 2 opponent: Maryland

Game two is coming up for Michigan State football as the Spartans hit the road for an early season Big Ten matchup against Maryland. The Terps have had MSU’s number in recent years, but the Spartans’ new-look team is ready to change that narrative this weekend.

Jonathan Smith and his staff have a lot to work on this week after a lackluster 16-10 win over Florida Atlantic, but we’ve become more than used to slow starts for MSU in their first game so it’s not time to panic just yet.

While the team wraps up their preparations for Maryland, let’s take a quick look at the Terps and see what we can learn about them before the big game on Saturday.

Maryland is off and running in their 2024 campaign and had an absolutely dominant week one performance. The Terps took on UConn at home and came away with an impressive 50-7 win. Sure UConn is an awful football program, but we saw how poorly Michigan State just did against a similar opponent.

Not only was the final score lopsided, but ever major statistical category was as well. Maryland doubled UConn in first downs and rushing yards, threw for nearly 400 passing yards and even won the turnover battle 3-0. The Terps also only had five penalties for 45 yards which is significantly better than MSU’s 12 for 140 yards against FAU.

Sure all of this took place against UConn, but it appears that Maryland is in a very good spot heading into this big week two matchup.

One thing that I thought would be a positive for Michigan State in this game is that Maryland is breaking in a new quarterback as well. The Terps’ quarterback, Billy Edwards Jr., went off against UConn and completed 20-of-27 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns. He also is a capable runner and added 39 yards on the ground, so Michigan State will have its hands full on Saturday slowing him down.

The Terps don’t have one standout running back in the backfield, so that does benefit MSU. They do however have two solid backs in Roman Hemby and Nolan Ray who both ran for over 60 yards and one score each.

The one player however that Michigan State needs to pay the most attention to is wide receiver Tai Felton. He had one of the best Week 1 performances in the country as he recorded seven receptions for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Thankfully MSU’s defense and secondary looked much improved against FAU, so hopefully that carries over into this weekend’s matchup.

The opportunity in front of MSU on Saturday is massive. The Spartans are big underdogs in this matchup which they probably deserve, but a win would do wonders not just for the overall perception of the team but for their confidence moving forward.

I’ve got a strange feeling that we’re going to be very happy around 7 p.m. ET Saturday night.

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