Dear Friends,
I want to start off by expressing my sincere condolences to the family and friends of 11-year-old Summer Lin, who died Thursday after she was struck by a school bus while bicycling. This incident, and the pedestrian death last month of James Anderson, a 16-year-old Wheaton High School student, are a parent’s worst nightmare.
Federal Government Shutdown
We are now more than a week into the federal shutdown, a completely avoidable situation that Republicans continue to be disingenuous about. Dread, concern, and angst are apparent in the lives of many Montgomery County residents because of the lies being told by many of our federal leaders and the stress this shutdown brings.
Not only is there an effort on the Republican side to deny workers back pay, but there has also been no effort made to negotiate toward a solution that would save jobs or keep health care costs down for many Americans. I had the opportunity to discuss this issue and many more this week with Harold Fisher on The Daily Drum, hosted on WHUR radio. I always enjoy these long-form interviews because they allow me to discuss each topic in depth, rather than in soundbites. I encourage you to listen to our full conversation and provide your feedback directly to me. You can reach me through montgomerycountymd.gov/exec.
Federal Workforce Career Center Opens
This week, we opened the Mobilize Montgomery Federal Workforce Career Center (FWCC) to support workers affected by the shutdown and cuts to federal programs and departments. This new facility will serve displaced or former federal workers as well as those who may have worked for contractors, non-governmental organizations, nonprofits, or vendors who served the federal government.
To our knowledge, this is the first center in the nation operated by a jurisdiction like ours to support displaced federal workers through personalized services and programs.
Setting up a center like this does not happen overnight. Earlier in the spring, we recognized the need to support our residents who were struggling under this Federal administration. I asked the County Council to allocate $700,000 to this project, and I would like to thank them for their support.
Mobilize Montgomery was also launched to coordinate help for job seekers. It brings together an array of organizations, including the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, the Maryland Department of Labor, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, and the Maryland Women’s Business Center, to name a few, for this collaboration. Montgomery County is home to a substantial number of federal employees, more than 70,000 at the start of the year. This instability has significant repercussions for our community.
The FWCC, located at 11510 Georgia Ave. in Wheaton, is operated by WorkSource Montgomery at its American Jobs Center. The center will support transitioning executives, senior managers, and highly skilled professionals. It offers tailored services, including executive career coaching, advanced resume and LinkedIn support, and programs like Federal-to-Private Sector Transition Support. Job seekers can also access guidance on launching into self-employment through our entrepreneurship support.
This center symbolizes Montgomery County’s ongoing commitment to stand with federal workers and contractors, ensuring you don’t have to navigate these changes alone.
This is all being necessitated because the President has decided to decimate access to health care and raise the cost at the same time, which will negatively impact millions of Americans. The sole reason to do this is to use the savings created by hurting Americans to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Of course, this attack only pays part of the bill. Other savings come from dumping FEMA’s responsibilities on the states. NIH, NIST, and the FDA are targeted for more cuts that will severely curtail their research into causes of and cures for illnesses that take a tremendous toll each year on millions of Americans. Federal leaders want to pretend climate change doesn’t exist, that emissions aren’t harmful, and they’re stifling efforts to move towards wind and solar power and increasing our reliance on coal – a true destroyer of the environment.
None of this has anything to do with efficiency. No one announced how we’d have better ways of doing things that are faster and more efficient. We are crippling scientific research and creating a free pass for industries that want to go back to pre-World War I America, where the environment, people’s lives, and workers’ rights counted for nothing and only the interests of millionaires and billionaires mattered. The only thought the President and his henchmen consider is whether a decision serves the interests of the wealthy and powerful.
We remain committed to supporting our residents and workforce and ensuring Montgomery County’s economy remains strong and resilient. Interested job seekers should register on the Maryland Workforce Exchange and complete the FWCC intake form to begin the process. For help or general questions, call 240-283-1509 or email fwcc@worksourcemontgomery.com.
Affordable Housing Pipeline Report
A poll released several weeks ago by The Banner Montgomery found that the most pressing issue among our residents is the cost of housing, ahead of the economy and crime. More than 80% of those surveyed stated that the County’s lack of affordable housing is a problem.
Housing has been a long-standing challenge, and when I became County Executive, I knew that addressing the housing crisis was a pressing need for our community. That is why we have continued to spend record amounts on affordable housing in my operating budgets. The Affordable Housing Pipeline Report helps us track our progress.
The latest report, which revises Fiscal Year 2025 figures and covers the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), shows that the County has significantly increased the number of affordable housing units it supports through its financial investments. You can see the progress in the chart below. It demonstrates incredible progress, and I would like to acknowledge the work of our Department of Housing and Community Affairs in achieving this success. The director of the department, Dr. Scott Bruton, joined my media briefing this week to talk about what else you can learn from the Affordable Housing Pipeline reports.
In FY25, we invested $108.3 million in 25 projects that supported the creation or preservation of 1,827 affordable homes. The number of units created or preserved compared to 2024 increased by 61%.
In the first three months of FY26, the County invested a total of $24.2 million across three projects to produce or preserve an additional 462 affordable housing units. The County has entered into or maintained existing Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements for two of these projects, with an estimated total annual value of nearly half a million dollars.
When you combine all our projects from the last three fiscal years, 58 projects were created or preserved, accounting for 4,397 affordable homes.
We have seen that we cannot rely on the market alone to produce enough affordable housing. It simply does not create enough to meet the needs of our community, or any community, frankly. This is why we’ve committed more than $316 million since FY23 to preserve, protect, or produce affordable housing throughout the County. In just the last 15 months alone, that's more than 2,200 units.
These projects support older adults, people in mental health recovery, working families, and first-time homebuyers. We also ensured that affordable units are being built and preserved to help larger families and create opportunities for home ownership. We need to make these investments if we want to be a community where people aren’t priced out by rising costs.
I encourage you to read the FY25 Affordable Housing Pipeline Report and the FY26 First Quarter Affordable Housing Pipeline Report for more details. You can access earlier pipeline reports dating back to September 2022 on the DHCA website.
Department of Energy Grants Canceled
Last week, the Trump Administration canceled 12 Department of Energy (DOE) grants totaling nearly $88 million in Maryland. Nationwide, the DOE canceled $7.5 billion in grants to Democratic-leaning blue states. I’d like to explain some of what these cuts mean here in Maryland.
These cuts hit home, including funds for Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) to enhance grid reliability and battery storage, research at the University of Maryland on cold-climate heat pumps and industrial emissions reductions, and a Maryland company working to improve building energy efficiency.
These cancellations ripple through our community. BGE investments in grid reliability, for instance, may be borne by our local BGE ratepayers in the form of higher electricity prices. In a time of rising electricity prices and economic uncertainty, local electric ratepayers cannot afford to subsidize partisan attacks on clean energy and innovation.
Our federal government should, instead, continue to support energy system upgrades and technological breakthroughs. You can read the reaction to these cuts from Maryland’s Congressional delegation here.
Active Aging Week
This week, we celebrated Active Aging Week, an opportunity to recognize and support older adults who continue to stay active, engaged, and connected in our community.
Our signature event, “Go, Grow, and Get Active,” took place on Monday, October 6, at the Nancy H. Dacek North Potomac Community Recreation Center. Photos from the event are shared on our Recreation Department’s Facebook page. It featured workshops, wellness activities, and a resource fair with local organizations that help older adults and caregivers stay healthy and connected.
I am proud to support these efforts because they reflect what Montgomery County stands for. We want to help people age in place. The cost of living, inflation, and other factors can make it difficult for older adults to remain in our community. Devoting resources to promoting inclusion, dignity, and opportunities for everyone at every age shows how much value we place in every resident. Find out more about services for older adults on our website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/senior.
We are committed to supporting older adults in Montgomery County by providing the resources they need to remain active, connected, and independent. Learn more about our activities through the Recreation Department and register for activities online through Active Montgomery.
I would like to thank everyone who participated, volunteered, and contributed to making Active Aging Week a success. You again showed the strength and vitality our older residents bring to this community every day.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Montgomery County is proud to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday of October. We join a growing number of communities across the country in choosing to honor the people who lived on this land long before European explorers arrived—and in doing so, we move away from celebrating Columbus Day.
By now, I hope more people realize Christopher Columbus was not a hero. His arrival marked the beginning of centuries of violence, exploitation, and displacement of Indigenous peoples. That’s not something we should celebrate because these lands were not “discovered,” they were already home to thriving, complex societies with deep histories and cultures.
The truth is that the mistreatment of Indigenous communities didn’t end centuries ago. It persists today in many forms, and we have a responsibility to acknowledge this and strive to do better moving forward.
Here in Montgomery County, we value our diversity. Among our many communities are more than 30,000 Marylanders and nearly seven million nationwide, with Indigenous roots. Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a time to reflect, learn, and recommit to justice and equity for all.
We can’t change the past, but we can choose to tell the truth about it.
As always, my appreciation for all of you,
Marc Elrich
County Executive
