Happy Valentine’s Day. We normally think of this as a Hallmark day, where we focus on our love interest if we have one, with a card, some chocolate, and maybe a date.
But while recording a Valentine’s Day message last week, I found myself delivering a call to action, with the words, “Unleash the power of love!” I know, it sounds like a song, but please, just go do it. I know you will. Why?
Because that’s what we do when times get tough. We did it with food distribution during COVID, and we’ll do it again if the congressional and judicial checks and balances that we learned about in school fail to block the dismantling of the institutions that exist to protect and serve us.
On Monday morning, we unleashed some love. I joined Maryland Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Secretary Jake Day, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth, and our District 30 delegation to the Maryland General Assembly at the offices of the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis (HACA). We were there to announce a solution to the agency’s financial crisis, a crisis that HACA CEO Melissa Maddox-Evans and others have warned could lead to homelessness for hundreds of families and chaos for our city and county.
After then-Senator Elfreth convened a meeting of local leaders to address the issues last summer, my team hired former Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County CEO and now-consultant Clif Martin to work with stakeholders on a plan. Here’s what they came up with, and what we announced on Monday.
Address a backlog of regulatory paperwork to prevent HUD from freezing essential funds. Underway with assistance from Quadel Consulting. Expedite repairs to all vacant or unlicensed units and get them inspected so that rent revenue can be restored to cover operating expenses. Underway with a $500,000 commitment from the City of Annapolis and quick-turnaround inspections. Mediate and settle ongoing lawsuits against HACA to prevent litigation costs from crippling the organization. Underway. Subsidize operating expenses until rent revenues are fully restored. Underway with just under $500k from the last of Anne Arundel County’s federal recovery funds and $300k from Maryland DHCD.
The long-term solution is the one recently completed by the county housing commission, to redevelop the dilapidated buildings using HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program. That multi-year effort is underway with the help of $1 million from the state and another $1 million from the city.
The real heroes in this effort are Melissa and her HACA staff, the ones who have stuck with the work under oppressive circumstances, taken pay cuts, and not walked away from the residents they serve when there was little hope that things would get better.
I also got to unleash some love to three extraordinary colleagues last week in the recording studio: Fort Meade Commander Colonel Yolanda Gore, AACPS School Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
That’s right. I got to interview all three for the Pittman and Friends podcast, and because all three are brilliant, funny, and full of ideas, the 30 minutes flew by with each. The Colonel Gore episode was released this Tuesday, and the Governor Moore and Dr. Bedell episodes will be out soon. All three will put a smile on your face.
I interviewed the Governor at Kinder Farm Park on Friday morning at 8am. He was there for his cabinet meeting, which would start at 9am and be followed by tours of some of the work we’re doing in the county. The podcast was a perfect launch to the day.
I didn’t really interview him. We just talked - about the first time we met, my decision to endorse him early, his inauguration (and my Oprah moment), budgeting, and getting outside political boxes. It was a hoot.
I wasn’t invited to the whole cabinet meeting, but I did get to greet the team as they kicked it off, and was there long enough to observe a deep level of camaraderie. It was clearly a group of people who like each other a lot, and that’s a good sign for Maryland.
A couple of hours later, the cabinet divided into four groups. One went to the Severn Center and Meade Village, where they learned about our violence interruption work and how the Center came to be. Another went to Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park and our new Nonprofit Center there, to see in person what we envision with our Master Plan. A third went to Glen Burnie Town Center, the Cromwell light rail station, and the county-owned 7409 B&A Boulevard that when redeveloped will drive a revitalization of the whole area.
I and Governor Moore were with the fourth group. We went to the Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, where we got a tour and met with about forty residents who have recently convened as one of 27 ENOUGH Act communities across the state. Their task is to organize and lead an effort to end childhood and concentrated poverty with the help of state funding, philanthropic funding, and in local government engagement.
After hearing presentations from eight local leaders, Governor Moore asked how people are feeling, people in the neighborhoods. A retired school teacher who has recently convened a coalition of neighborhood groups in the area spoke up right away, saying, “People know what’s happening. They are outraged.”
And then she went on to say how her people have been here before, how they understand that speaking out can be dangerous, and that strategy matters. Her unspoken message was one of readiness to act. Her spoken message was that we must connect with one another, now.
She was talking about the threat of deportation, the firing of federal workers, and a pervasive sense in communities of color that the new administration in Washington will make life harder.
Earlier in the meeting, Governor Moore noticed a local pastor who he recognized from his work across the border in Baltimore City. They silently reached a long way across the table to connect with a fist bump.
I thought later about that gesture - efficient and respectful, demonstrating strength, purpose, and connection. I Googled the origins of it, and I pondered my own gratifying history of fist-bumping.
I reported on it at our staff meeting on Monday, and I asked everyone to fist-bump the people sitting next to them. They did. We did. Maybe we even unleashed some of the power of love. Join us.