Wes Moore wants you to clap. He announced $7.45 million in federal money for housing for disabled adults. He called it a win. He posed for the cameras. He issued the press release.
Here is what he did not say. That money is crumbs. It is an insult. It is a rounding error in a state budget of billions, handed to the most vulnerable people in Maryland with a smile and a photo op.
The Crumbs
The money comes through HUD’s Section 811 program. It will subsidize rent for adults with disabilities who make less than 30 percent of the area median income. The state expects to distribute it over the next six to twelve months.
Do you know what $7.45 million buys in Maryland? A few hundred apartments. Maybe. For a state with nearly six million people. A state where thousands of disabled adults are on waiting lists that stretch for years. A state where people with disabilities are more likely to be homeless, more likely to be poor, and more likely to die young.
Seven million dollars will not fix that. It will not even make a dent. It is a band-aid on a bullet wound. It is a check written to make politicians feel good about themselves while the people who need help keep waiting.
The Photo Op
Moore said “Everyone deserves accessible and affordable housing.” That is a nice sentence. It belongs on a bumper sticker. It does not belong in a press release announcing that he is doing almost nothing.
He is not the villain here. The federal government is. Washington spends trillions on wars and tax cuts for billionaires. It spends billions on defense contractors and corporate subsidies. And it can only find $7.45 million for disabled Americans who need a roof over their heads.
But Moore is not innocent either. He is the one cutting the ribbon. He is the one pretending this is a victory. He is the one asking us to applaud while his constituents sleep in cars and shelters and on the streets.
The Bottom Line
Maryland received $7.45 million in federal funding for housing for disabled adults. The money will be distributed over the next six to twelve months. Moore called it a win. It is not a win. It is a failure dressed up as a press release.
My Opinion
Wes Moore stood in front of a camera and announced $7.45 million for housing for adults with disabilities. He smiled. He said everyone deserves affordable housing. He acted like this was a victory.
This is an insult to every disabled person in Maryland who has been waiting years for housing. The federal government spends trillions of dollars every year. It spends billions on wars and on tax cuts for people who do not need them. It spends billions on everything except the people who need it most. And when it finally throws a few million dollars at the problem, politicians like Wes Moore hold a press conference and pretend they have solved it.
Do you know what $7.45 million is? It is the cost of a single fighter jet abd the salary of a few corporate executives. Wes Moore should be ashamed. Not because he accepted the money but because he stood in front of the cameras and acted like he had done something meaningful. Because he asked us to clap while disabled adults in his state sleep on the streets.
These people deserve better. They deserve a governor who will fight for them. They deserve a federal government that will fund housing like it is a human right, not a line item.
