House Bill 127, presented to the Environment and Transportation Committee by Secretary Jake Day of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), would expand eligible recipients of Maryland Housing Rehabilitation Program funds to include certified nonprofit organizational partners.

Secretary Jake Day, DHCD, said MHRP is the department’s primary program to help low- and moderate-income homeowners with structural repairs, code upgrades and accessibility modifications. Under current law, DHCD awards funds only to local governments, which in turn distribute those funds. DHCD’s proposal would permit certified nonprofits — organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and similar community partners — to receive DHCD funds directly to deliver rehab services.

“A larger network of participating nonprofit partners will allow DHCD to more effectively and more speedily disperse funds to homeowners,” Secretary Day said. He framed the change as both administrative relief for smaller local governments and a tool to advance a “streamlined whole-home approach” by pairing repair dollars with DHCD energy-efficiency programs.

Nichola Tran, DHCD director of Whole Home Energy and Repair Programs, explained the department already uses a comparable approach in weatherization assistance: the agency issues requests for applications, evaluates applicants’ capacity and track records, and monitors performance. Committee members pressed DHCD about vetting standards: Delegate Healy asked how DHCD would ensure nonprofits are legitimate and accountable. Tran and Day said DHCD uses competitive applications, minimum standards (including track record), and ongoing monitoring; they were open to developing formal regulatory criteria to be published in COMAR and reviewed by the Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review (AELR) Committee.

Committee members also asked whether nonprofits must be locally based; DHCD said it would research whether the program should require local presence or permit national nonprofits to apply, and the department offered to work with the committee on statutory language or to implement certification standards administratively.

No formal vote or committee action was recorded at the end of the hearing; DHCD requested a favorable report.