Annapolis, MD — Yesterday, 19 organizations sent a letter to Governor Wes Moore and Housing Secretary Jacob Day urging the passage of HB0059/SB0912 without amendments, to protect Marylanders from tax sale foreclosure and eviction due to unpaid water bills.

The original legislation, filed by the governor’s administration, ensures that no individual, homeowner or not, can have their housing sold at tax sale due to unpaid water and sewage bills. But the tax sale industry is shopping around amendments that would remove those protections for many families and religious institutions, potentially putting thousands at risk of eviction and foreclosure. The letter calls on Governor Moore and Secretary Day to side with Maryland’s families and not the tax sale collectors.

Jorge Aguilar, Southern Regional Director with Food & Water Watch, an organizer of the letter, said:

“In Maryland and across the U.S., people are struggling to get by as the price of living continuously climbs. So, for someone to have their home or place of worship, stripped from them because they weren’t able to pay for water, a basic necessity, is unconscionable. Gov. Moore previously agreed to pass a clean bill without amendments to protect everyone unable to pay their water bills. Gov. Moore and leadership must not go back on their word. We have so many issues facing Marylanders right now — taking away housing and punishing the most vulnerable among us will contribute nothing but harm to Maryland.”

“Supporting homeownership is one critical way that this administration can further economic justice in Maryland in these difficult times,” says Allison Harris, Director of the Home Preservation Project at the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland. “Keeping families in homes and homes in families is proven to bolster both individual and community economic stability. Threatening home loss for an overdue water bill should not be on the table and harms all of us who live here.”

“We’re concerned about amendments that could put houses of faith back in tax sale for water bills. We’ve seen the harm to communities when their churches and other religious institutions lose their properties in tax sale – the damage ripples outward, impacting the congregation and the neighborhood as a whole,” said Shana Roth-Gormley, Staff Attorney at Community Law Center. “Putting families and houses of faith back in tax sale for water bills would be a step in the wrong direction for our communities, threatening legacy residents and potentially causing more properties to become vacant.”

“The clean House Bill 0059 and Senate Bill 0912, without any misleading amendments, will provide vital protections for people facing tax sale,” said Courtland Merkel, Housing and Consumer Staff Attorney for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. “That’s why Governor Moore, who authored the original unamended bill, rejected using water bills to place people’s homes in the tax sale process—a process that only benefits a few who exploit low-income families for their own private profit. Governor Moore and the leadership must not turn their backs on Marylanders who are struggling and should support unaltered legislation.”