Practical solutions from 30 years of on-the-ground experience.
Montgomery County's rent stabilization law was a hard-won victory. Matt helped build the coalition that made it happen, and he will defend it against every attempt to water it down. But stabilization alone is not enough. Renters also need good-cause eviction protections, so that no tenant can be forced from their home without a stated, justifiable reason. These two policies together form the foundation of real housing security.
The county must also improve enforcement of its existing housing protections and expand outreach so that tenants actually know their rights. Too many renters face illegal rent increases, habitability violations, and retaliatory threats with no idea where to turn. Protecting the affordable housing stock we already have is just as important as building new units.
At the same time, we need to remove unnecessary regulatory obstacles that slow the construction of new multi-family housing near transit and in urban hubs. County dollars should be paired with private investment where there is clear public benefit, and tax exemptions for housing should be granted only after an honest assessment of what the public actually gets in return. Growth and tenant protections are not contradictions. Done right, they reinforce each other.
"I am strongly pro-business, despite what people may think. Stable housing creates stable communities where businesses flourish."
Effective policing starts with relationships. Matt supports community policing in its truest form: officers on foot and on bicycles, present in neighborhoods, known by name. He believes in direct police outreach and relationship-building in rental housing communities, local businesses, and civic organizations. The police force should be reflective of and respectful of the county's remarkably diverse population. When officers are part of the community they serve, trust follows.
A police force that looks like Montgomery County and is rooted in its neighborhoods is a police force that keeps people safe.
Matt supports resource officers in schools, particularly in high schools, with clear limitations so that school discipline remains in the hands of educators. He also supports community oversight through the Police Accountability Board, with its primary mission focused on supporting professional police work as the standard. Accountability and good policing are the same goal, not competing ones.
Housing stability is the linchpin of community health. When families have a secure place to live, every other challenge becomes more manageable. Matt will fight to ensure food availability for those in need and will work to keep the county's safety net services strong. That means maintaining funding, not cutting corners, for the programs that prevent families from falling through the cracks.
Seniors deserve particular attention. Matt has initiated a task force to review and strengthen services for older residents, covering housing security, economic support, and community engagement. He strongly supports senior health and recreation programming, as well as civic engagement opportunities that keep older adults connected to the communities they helped build. For younger residents, Matt backs youth activities through sports, civic engagement, and service initiatives that give the next generation purpose and direction.
Our shelters are over capacity partly because neighboring jurisdictions have underinvested in their own. We need regional partnerships, not just county-level fixes.
On homelessness, the county cannot absorb the overflow from Prince George's County and the District of Columbia alone. Matt will work to engage surrounding municipalities in wider cost and capacity sharing for homeless shelter services. Regional problems demand regional cooperation.
Matt has no appetite for cutting government services. The county's residents depend on them, and the communities that need the most help are always the first to feel the pain of austerity. Instead, he will look for improved efficiencies, eliminate duplication across departments, and ensure that funding continues to reach the residents who depend on it most.
The smarter approach to fiscal responsibility is long-term thinking. Investing in housing stability, youth programs, and senior services now reduces the far greater costs of crisis intervention later. A budget that addresses root causes rather than symptoms is not just more humane. It is more responsible.
Thirty years of advocacy taught Matt that change doesn't happen from the sidelines. Support the campaign that puts renters, families, and fiscal honesty first.
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