Howard County awards $4 million in Housing Opportunities Trust Fund grants | The Locally Times
Published ยท The Locally Times
The county announced October 30 that 13 applications totaling nearly $23 million competed for $4 million in HOTF awards.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and the Department of Housing and Community Development announced $4 million in awards from the Housing Opportunities Trust Fund on October 30, 2026. The Fiscal Year 2027 awards will support the creation and preservation of approximately 350 affordable units, as well as rental assistance and eviction prevention programs for an additional 200 households. ## Details The department released a Notice of Funding Availability for the $4 million on August 13, 2026, and applications were due September 22, 2026. DHCD received 13 applications totaling nearly $23 million in funding requests, meaning most requested dollars went unfunded in this round. ## Background Ball created the county's first Housing Opportunities Trust Fund in 2022 as a key recommendation of the Housing Opportunities Master Plan released in April 2021. The fund received an initial allocation of $5 million in the FY 2023 budget, followed by $10 million in FY 2025 and $1 million in FY 2027, for $16 million total during Ball's time in office. ## What the record shows Among the FY 2027 awards is support for the Midway 32 Transit-Oriented Development Project, which plans approximately 600 apartment homes on an underutilized office campus adjacent to the Savage MARC Station. The supplied excerpt of the announcement ends mid-description of the Midway 32 project and does not list the remaining award recipients or individual award amounts.