2026 Candidate Questionnaire
County Council At-Large
Jim McNulty (D)
Website: jimmcnulty.org
Find all candidate questionnaires here.
Housing Leadership
In your view, why are many Montgomery County residents struggling to afford housing?
Montgomery County residents struggle to afford housing because we've failed to build enough homes to keep pace with job growth and demand. For decades, restrictive zoning, lengthy approval processes, and community opposition constrained housing production while employment centers expanded. The result is classic economics: limited supply against strong demand drives prices up.
Montgomery County added approximately 100,000 jobs between 2010 and 2020 but built nowhere near enough housing units to accommodate workers filling those jobs. Many commute from Frederick, Howard, and Prince George's counties—places that built more housing. The families who do stay here face bidding wars and escalating rents.
More recently, rent stabilization has made the crisis acute. Multifamily permitting collapsed from 2,100 units in 2024 to just 84 units in the first eight months of 2025. Banks won't finance projects when future returns are capped and uncertain. At a recent national conference, developers reported that Montgomery County was one of two places in the entire country where investors told them, “Don’t waste our time.” As a result, we're not building rental housing at the very moment we need it most.
The affordability crisis also reflects inadequate investment in affordable housing production and preservation. The Housing Opportunities Commission needs more resources to acquire and maintain affordable units county-wide. Our MPDU program creates affordable housing within new developments, but when development stops, so does MPDU production. Meanwhile, there is a FOUR YEAR WAIT for voucher assistance. How is that supposed to be a safety net?
Working families face a particular squeeze: teachers, firefighters, nurses, and county employees earn too much for subsidized housing but can't afford market-rate homes here. This "missing middle" gap is why I've proposed the $40 million Workforce Housing Downpayment Assistance Fund—targeting households at 80-120% of area median income who fall through the cracks of existing programs. It would provide up to $40,000 in downpayment assistance, as a zero-interest, zero payment loan, payable when the home is sold or refinanced, to help more than 1,000 County working families get into their first home.
The County pledged to build 41,000 housing units by 2030. Until we address the policies that actively discourage housing production so we can dramatically increase housing at all price points, affordability will remain out of reach for too many families.
What is one housing initiative you would plan to spearhead, if elected?
My signature housing initiative is a $40M downpayment assistance fund to help get 1,000 working families into their first home. As an elected Gaithersburg City Council Member, I voted to expand our municipal assistance program to provide up to $40,000 for downpayment and closing costs in the form of a zero-interest, zero payment loan. I want to expand this program to the County, so we can help our teachers, first responders, healthcare workers and long-time renters achieve the dream of owning their own home.
Many of our essential workers who make our community thrive increasingly cannot afford to live here. These working families currently spend between $2,000-3,000 a month in rent, showing they could afford monthly mortgage payments but are unable to save the tens of thousands of dollars required for a down payment and closing costs in today’s market.
This program allows working families to begin building equity and creating cost certainty in their budgets by locking in a fixed rate housing payment. Gaithersburg’s program is funded exclusively by CDBG funds, which limits how many families we can help each year. My proposal would more than double the County Housing Initiative Fund and use those funds to invest in homeowners, not just landlords.
The best part of the program is that after the initial investment, the program would begin to pay for itself as loans are paid off. After year 9, we would expect between $4-5 million annually from loan repayments, allowing the County to offer more than 100 new loans each year, sustained by the previous loan repayments.
The initial investment would come from a combination of Housing Revenue Bonds, CDBG grants, private sector partnerships, and directing a small percentage of recordation taxes (not a tax increase) toward the Housing Initiative Fund. Insurance companies and banks have community development and reinvestment obligations, so our program becomes an ideal target for their support. The County’s major employers, particularly in the biotech and hospitality fields, have workforce recruitment and retention needs that would be served by their investment as well.
This isn't just housing policy; it's economic development and workforce retention. When teachers and first responders can't afford to live here, we lose talent to surrounding jurisdictions. The fund creates a direct incentive for essential workers to put down roots in Montgomery County.
Zoning, Supply, and Housing Prices
In your view, how does current zoning policy in Montgomery County affect the supply and price of housing?
Zoning affects housing supply most significantly by determining where we can pursue large-scale development opportunities. The biggest impact comes not from what's allowed on individual lots, but from whether we're maximizing development potential at major redevelopment sites near transit infrastructure.
Montgomery County has tremendous opportunities to add housing supply through "big swing" projects—transforming underperforming retail centers, obsolete office parks, and highway corridors into vibrant mixed-use communities with thousands of homes. These sites can absorb significant density because they're designed for it from the ground up, with appropriate infrastructure and transit access.
In Gaithersburg, I've helped make this happen. The Lakeforest Mall redevelopment will transform a dying retail center into over 1,600 homes, with demolition beginning just last week. This single project delivers more housing than years of incremental infill across the city—and it's happening on a site designed for high traffic and activity, not in established residential neighborhoods.
We also recently completed "Retool Gaithersburg," a comprehensive zoning update that created new categories like our Corridor Development (CD) zone and added FAR ratio bonuses for property owners who consolidate parcels to enable larger-scale redevelopment. This gives landowners incentives to work together on transformative projects rather than piecemeal development that never achieves critical mass. Smart zoning makes redevelopment easier without forcing density where it doesn't belong.
The county has similar opportunities at White Flint (where TIF-financed infrastructure can unlock thousands of units), the Comsat site, and along highway corridors where commercial uses are declining. These are the sites where zoning for density makes the most sense—near Metro stations and major transit corridors where infrastructure exists to support more residents.
Thrive 2050 and More Housing N.O.W. have made progress allowing more housing types along major corridors. The key is focusing density where it delivers the most benefit: near real transit, on large redevelopment sites, and along commercial corridors—not forcing incompatible development into established neighborhoods where it generates opposition and slows progress overall.
What changes would you support to Montgomery County’s zoning policies to support greater housing affordability?
I support zoning policies that maximize housing production where it makes the most sense—near real transit and on large redevelopment sites—while respecting established neighborhoods.
Prioritize "Big Swing" Redevelopment Sites: The county's greatest housing opportunities are on sites that can deliver thousands of units through comprehensive redevelopment. Dying malls, underperforming office parks, and surface parking lots near Metro stations should be rezoned and master-planned for high-density mixed-use development. These projects generate the volume needed to meaningfully impact supply and affordability.
Incentivize Parcel Consolidation: In Gaithersburg's "Retool" zoning update, we created FAR ratio bonuses for property owners who consolidate parcels to enable larger-scale redevelopment. The county should adopt similar incentives—encouraging landowners to work together on transformative projects rather than piecemeal development that never achieves the scale needed for housing production, infrastructure investment, or community amenities.
Unlock Development with TIF Financing: Tax Increment Financing can make large projects feasible by funding infrastructure upfront—roads, utilities, schools, parks—paid back by the increased property tax revenue the development generates. White Flint demonstrated TIF's potential; we should apply this model to other opportunity sites like Comsat, Rock Spring, and aging retail centers county-wide.
Focus Density Near Real Transit: Metro stations, Purple Line stations, and completed BRT corridors are where density belongs. Residents at these locations can live car-light or car-free, reducing infrastructure strain and environmental impact. Zoning should maximize housing potential within a half-mile of rail stations.
Highway Corridor Development: Commercial corridors along Rockville Pike, Georgia Avenue, University Boulevard, and other major roads are appropriate locations for increased density. The More Housing N.O.W. amendment allowing duplexes and triplexes along these corridors is a reasonable step.
Mixed-Use Redevelopment of Underutilized Office Sites: Rather than simply converting vacant office buildings to residential, we should encourage mixed-use redevelopment that adds housing while preserving and modernizing employment space. Having jobs close to where we live supports Thrive 2050's goal of complete communities—reducing commutes, supporting local retail, and creating vibrant neighborhoods where people can live, work, and access services without relying on cars.
Accessory Dwelling Units: Support reforms making it easier to add ADUs to existing properties—basement apartments, garage conversions, backyard cottages. These provide affordable rental options while helping homeowners generate income and age in place.
Streamlined Approval for Compliant Projects: When projects meet master plan guidance and zoning requirements, approval should be straightforward. Lengthy discretionary reviews add costs that get passed to renters and buyers.
People work hard to purchase their homes and shouldn't face incompatible development forced into their neighborhoods. The good news is we don't need to—we have more than enough capacity on major redevelopment sites and transit corridors to meet our housing 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
a. Affordable (subsidized) 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.
First, I'd challenge the premise that affordable housing must be subsidized. Affordable housing can occur naturally when we build enough supply to meet demand. The Logic development in East County is a perfect example—new market-rate apartments with rents accessible to working families, achieved through efficient design and appropriate density rather than government subsidy.
Recent Pew research demonstrates that building housing at all price points—even expensive units—creates "moving chains" that benefit everyone. When higher-income residents move into new construction, they free up their previous homes for middle-income families, who free up homes for lower-income families. These chains quickly reach below-average income communities, freeing up as many as 70 homes for each 100 new units built. The best affordability strategy is abundant supply.
That said, subsidized housing remains essential for residents who cannot access market-rate housing regardless of supply conditions: seniors on fixed incomes, people with disabilities, families earning below 60% of Area Median Income, and those transitioning from homelessness. For these residents, the market alone won't produce affordable options.
The Housing Opportunities Commission plays a critical role administering Housing Choice Vouchers and managing public housing. But we should also use subsidies to invest in homeownership, not just support landlords. My downpayment assistance proposal reflects this—helping working families build equity and wealth rather than paying rent indefinitely. The MPDU program similarly creates affordable homeownership opportunities within market-rate developments.
The goal is a comprehensive approach: build enough housing to create naturally occurring affordability, while targeting subsidies to those who genuinely need them and prioritizing wealth-building homeownership where possible.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
Market-rate housing is the backbone of Montgomery County's housing supply, serving the vast majority of residents. When we build enough of it, market-rate housing naturally becomes more affordable through competition and the moving chains I described above.
The key insight is that restricting market-rate development doesn't protect affordability—it destroys it. When supply is constrained, prices rise across the board. Higher-income households outbid middle-income households for limited inventory; middle-income households displace lower-income families. The result is the affordability crisis we're living through.
I distinguish between market-rate housing broadly and what I call "attainable housing"—market-rate units affordable to working families without subsidies. Our teachers, nurses, and firefighters earning $60,000-$90,000 need homes priced within reach through efficient design, appropriate density, and reduced regulatory costs. The Logic development shows this is possible. Townhomes, condos, and smaller single-family homes in the $350,000-$500,000 range serve this market when we allow them to be built.
Market-rate development also generates the affordable units we need through the MPDU program. When market-rate construction stops—as it has since the rent stabilization debate—MPDU production stops too. We saw multifamily permitting collapse from 2,100 units in 2024 to just 84 in the first eight months of 2025. That's not just 2,000 fewer market-rate units; it's hundreds of fewer MPDUs that would have served lower-income families.
The goal is abundant housing at all price points, creating a market where families can find homes that fit their budgets without government subsidy whenever possible.
What is one policy change in each area that you would pursue, if elected?
a. Affordable (subsidized) housing
I would pursue reforming and expanding the Housing Choice Voucher program while investing in homeownership, not just landlords.
The current voucher system has a 4-year waiting list—families in crisis have no immediate options. We need to expand voucher funding to reduce wait times and help more families access stable housing. But we should also reform the program to work better: streamline landlord enrollment, ensure voucher payment standards keep pace with actual market rents, and reduce administrative barriers that discourage landlord participation.
More fundamentally, we should shift some subsidy investment from supporting rental payments to building household wealth. My $40M downpayment assistance fund would help working families purchase homes rather than paying rent indefinitely. When we invest in homeownership, families build equity, gain cost certainty through fixed-rate mortgages, and establish roots in our community. When we only subsidize rent, we're essentially transferring public dollars to landlords while families never build wealth.
This doesn't mean abandoning rental assistance—vouchers remain essential for families who aren't ready for homeownership or can't qualify. But we should expand the toolkit to include homeownership pathways. The Housing Initiative Fund should support first-time buyers, not just affordable rental development.
Finally, we need to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing before it disappears. This means two things: helping current landlords maintain affordability, and acquiring properties when they're at risk of conversion. In Gaithersburg, we developed the Multifamily Investment Loan program, which allows landlords to invest in sustainability improvements—energy efficiency, water conservation, building systems—without raising rents to cover the costs. The county should adopt a similar program. When properties do come up for sale, the county's right of first refusal program allows HOC to purchase buildings and maintain affordability—that's a good program we should fully fund. Preservation is more cost-effective than new construction, and it keeps existing residents in their homes.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
I would pursue repealing rent control while maintaining code enforcement, mediation, and tenant protections.
The data is unambiguous: rent stabilization has been a disaster for housing production and does nothing to actually lower rents. Multifamily permitting collapsed from 2,100 units in 2024 to just 84 in the first eight months of 2025. Banks have effectively redlined Montgomery County because they cannot underwrite projects with uncertain long-term returns under price controls.
As I wrote in my Montgomery Perspective op-ed, the contrast with neighboring jurisdictions is stark. In Gaithersburg and Rockville—cities within Montgomery County but exempt from county rent control—rents actually decreased. Columbia in Howard County saw the same trend. Meanwhile, rents in areas subject to Montgomery County's rent stabilization continued to rise. The policy failed on its own terms while destroying our housing production pipeline.
Rent control doesn't create affordability—it rations existing scarcity while preventing new construction. We're making the housing shortage worse, not better.
I support maintaining the beneficial portions of the tenant protection framework: code enforcement to ensure habitability, mediation services to resolve landlord-tenant disputes and prevent gouging, and adequate notice periods for rent increases. These protect tenants without destroying the incentive to build new housing.
The path to affordability is abundant supply, not price controls that prevent construction. We need to restart our housing production engine, and that means repealing the rent control provisions that have frozen it.
Transportation & Smart Growth
What would you do to prioritize transit frequency and access if elected?
Frequency matters—but only if transit goes where people actually need it. My priority is right-sizing our transit network to connect employment nodes, optimize existing infrastructure, and solve the last-mile problem.
Optimize What We Have: Metro and MARC are our most valuable transit assets, yet we underutilize them. We should focus on maximizing ridership on these existing systems before building parallel infrastructure. That means better feeder service, improved station access, and coordinated schedules—not competing with rail we've already paid for.
Connect Employment Nodes: Our transit network should link where people live to where they work—including counter-commute and cross-county patterns that current systems ignore. Many workers commuting to jobs in Gaithersburg live in Silver Spring and Takoma Park, yet Metro and MARC aren't optimized for that pattern. We need reliable service connecting residential areas to job centers throughout the county: not just Bethesda and Silver Spring, but Upcounty locations like Clarksburg and East County employment centers like White Oak. Too often, our routes are designed around the traditional downtown DC commute rather than the cross-county travel patterns that reflect how people actually live and work today.
Right-Size Service: Not every route needs the same frequency. High-ridership corridors connecting to Metro deserve 10-15 minute headways. Lower-demand areas might be better served by on-demand microtransit or flexible routes. We should match service levels to actual demand rather than spreading resources thin everywhere.
Don't Duplicate—Connect: I oppose taking travel lanes for BRT where we already have rail service. Extending Flash BRT down Wisconsin Avenue to Friendship Heights, for example, would parallel the Red Line while worsening traffic congestion. Instead, invest in circulation that feeds Metro—shuttles and connections that solve the last-mile problem and get people TO stations, not service that duplicates what's already underground.
Last-Mile Optionality: Many residents don't use transit because they can't easily get to or from stations. We should expand options: improved bike infrastructure and secure parking at stations, partnerships with micromobility providers, employer-sponsored shuttles, and on-demand services for lower-density areas. Meeting people where they are increases ridership more than building expensive new infrastructure.
What would you do to ensure safe walking and biking access to transit, stores, schools and services for residents of existing and new housing?
Pedestrian safety has been a priority of mine in Gaithersburg. I've worked to fund new crosswalks, sidewalk improvements, and traffic signals at dangerous intersections. Safe infrastructure saves lives, and I'd bring that same focus to the county level.
As a cyclist myself, I know what makes biking safe and practical. In Gaithersburg, our preferred approach has been shared-use paths—separated paths running parallel to major roads that serve both pedestrians and cyclists. This expands safe options without creating conflicts between modes.
At the county level, I'd prioritize expanding shared-use paths where right-of-way exists, following the Gaithersburg model. We need to complete sidewalk networks within a half-mile of Metro and Purple Line stations, close sidewalk gaps on key routes to schools, transit, and commercial areas, and expand safe routes to schools programs that identify and fix hazards. All crossings and transit stops should have ADA-compliant infrastructure and adequate lighting, particularly around transit facilities.
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?
Effective housing policy requires input from multiple stakeholders with different perspectives and expertise. As a Realtor and member of GCAAR, I already have direct relationships with many of these organizations.
Industry Stakeholders:
Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS (GCAAR) – I'm a member and was endorsed by GCAAR. They provide ground-level insights on market conditions, buyer challenges, and policy impacts.
Maryland Building Industry Association (MBIA) – developer perspective on construction costs, financing, regulatory barriers, and what makes projects feasible
Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA) – rental market dynamics, operating costs, and landlord concerns
Individual developers (Tower Companies, Bozzuto, Foulger-Pratt, HIP, etc.) – project-specific intelligence on what's working and what isn't
Public Sector:
City of Gaithersburg Economic Development and Planning Department – I work closely with city staff who provide access to COSTAR and other real-time market data
Housing Opportunities Commission – affordable housing production, preservation, and administration
Montgomery County Planning Department – zoning implementation, master plan development, and development review data
Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) – housing programs administration and compliance
Advocacy and Research:
Greater Greater Washington – I am proud to be endorsed by GGW; they provide smart growth and housing production advocacy perspectives
Montgomery Housing Partnership – nonprofit affordable housing developer perspective
Montgomery for All – tenant and community perspectives
Pew Research Center – national research on housing policy effectiveness
Data Sources:
COSTAR (via Gaithersburg staff) – commercial and multifamily market trends
Bright MLS – residential sales data and market trends
Planning Department permitting data – tracking actual production versus goals
Census Bureau and American Community Survey – demographic and housing cost trends
HOC waiting lists and voucher utilization – measuring unmet affordable housing demand
Direct Community Input:
Renters and homeowners experiencing affordability challenges
Residents of existing affordable housing
Neighborhood associations adjacent to proposed development
The key is triangulating perspectives. Developers tell you what pencils out; advocates tell you who's being left behind; data tells you whether policies are achieving intended results. Effective policy requires understanding all three.