2026 Candidate Questionnaire
County Council At-Large
Fatmata Barrie (D)
Website: fatmatabarrie.com
Find all candidate questionnaires here.
Housing Leadership
In your view, why are many Montgomery County residents struggling to afford housing?
Our county has failed to meet the supply and demand rules of housing. While we continue to build housing, we have thousands of residents and potential residents waiting for years for low-income and affordable housing. Our public transportation has not expanded to allow residents without cars to live freely in different areas of the county. And while we have some of the highest income zip codes in the country, the median home price leaves many residents unable to afford homeownership. This leaves a bottleneck of residents struggling to keep up with rising costs. We need to attack housing affordability from all angles to ensure anyone who wants to live in Montgomery County can call our county home.
Median household income often masks the reality for many residents. In communities like White Oak, where I live, and other areas in the county, we have shift workers, hourly wage earners, and day laborers earning around $600 a week—just over $30,000 a year. Our housing policies must reflect their reality, not just county averages.
What is one housing initiative you would plan to spearhead, if elected?
Living in East County and in my career as an immigration and special education attorney, I have seen how marginalized and low-income communities struggle in housing that has infestation issues, code violations, and a fear of reporting safety concerns. Everyone should have access to safe, clean and affordable housing. As a councilmember, I will fight to hold landlords and management companies accountable to ensure they are maintaining rental properties and residents have access and education on the resources available to them.
Zoning, Supply, and Housing Prices
In your view, how does current zoning policy in Montgomery County affect the supply and price of housing?
Our current zoning policies have not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of the capital region and the expanded needs of residents. Our MPDU and transit focused zoning has focused on housing in areas along the Red Line, leaving us behind on our affordable and low-income housing goals, while lack of investment in transportation in other areas of the county has made it difficult to expand to get the units we need.
What changes would you support to Montgomery County’s zoning policies to support greater housing affordability?
I will fight to change zoning to alleviate the “missing middle”, housing does not only include large apartment buildings or single-family lots. We need to diversify housing options across the county to allow for smaller homes, duplexes, triplexes and townhomes as well as expand public transit to accommodate this expansion. For too many residents when looking at housing, they must consider whether they’ll need a car to live away from down county transit. By expanding our public transportation access and changing zone policies, we can create more housing throughout the county without massive increases in traffic or endangering our climate goals.
Affordable & Market-Rate Housing
Please explain what you see as the role that each of these types of housing play in the housing landscape in Montgomery County, and the needs they fill for Montgomery County residents:
a. Affordable (subsidized) housing
Having affordable housing throughout our county allows us to welcome new residents, gives families access to good schools and communities, allows our seniors to age in place and our workers to live where they work.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
Market rate housing moderates rent by increasing supply, creates a chain of moves as older units open when residents move to new housing, and studies have shown increases in market rate housing in conjunction with increased subsidized units reduces displacement.
What is one policy change in each area that you would pursue, if elected?
a. Affordable (subsidized) housing
I would fight to increase the number of duplexes and triplexes in the county and expand our voucher program to reduce the backlog of applications for low-income housing subsidies. It’s a tragedy families wait years for our housing programs. I would promote non-profit builders to ensure we are able to have more affordable housing.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
I would fight for the zoning policy changes needed to increase market rate housing as well as for the benefits included in the previous answer. Meaning keeping in mind that these are in conjunction with affordable housing.
Transportation & Smart Growth
What would you do to prioritize transit frequency and access if elected?
Increasing public transportation access is one of my campaign platforms. If we want to truly increase housing across the county we must also increase public transportation beyond the highway and Red Line corridor. I will fight for funding to increase Ride On routes and frequency as well as fight for public transportation fiscal notes to be added for new developments so we as county legislators are ensuring new housing and transit are always in sync.
What would you do to ensure safe walking and biking access to transit, stores, schools and services for residents of existing and new housing?
Development conversations and plans must include inclusive conversations about stores, schools, transit and services from the beginning to ensure we are focused on smart growth across the county. As a councilmember, I will work to break down siloed conversations so our community expansion addresses both immediate and future needs of residents and their families.
Community Input & Stakeholder Engagement
What organizations, stakeholders, datasets, or other sources of information would you turn to to understand the nuts and bolts of housing policy implementation, and how to craft effective policies that meet Montgomery County’s housing needs?
Housing policy is ever changing. I plan on hiring at least one staff member with experience in housing policy, engaging with stakeholders and organizations across the county to understand county needs as well as attending conferences and meetings. I believe it’s also important to continue community engagement on housing and zoning issues once elected by hosting town halls, holding community events, ensuring residents have access to resources and updated information. It’s also important to invest in datasets to review population increases so we can plan accordingly as we make zoning decisions.