2026 Candidate Questionnaire
County Council At-Large
Lelia True (D)
Website: true4moco.com
Find all candidate questionnaires here.
Housing Leadership
In your view, why are many Montgomery County residents struggling to afford housing?
Montgomery County's housing affordability crisis is driven by the fact that it’s become too hard and too expensive to build the kinds of homes people actually need.. And tackling this problem will be one of my top priorities as a Councilmember.
Restrictive zoning has long limited the types and density of housing that can be built, especially near transit corridors and job centers. Permitting processes are fragmented across multiple agencies, adding cost and delay that developers — especially smaller, mission-driven builders — can't absorb.
At the same time, incomes have not kept pace with rising housing costs. A household needs roughly $270,000 in combined income to afford a median-priced home in Montgomery County, while the median couple earns around $131,000. Federal workforce cuts are now adding pressure on top of an already strained market. The result is that teachers, firefighters, healthcare workers, and many others who serve our community can no longer afford to live here. I’ve seen this up close. I’ve worked to try to find housing for teachers and I’ve seen talented people move out of our community because they couldn’t afford to stay.
What is one housing initiative you would plan to spearhead, if elected?
I will spearhead an Essential Worker Housing Initiative because the people who teach our kids, respond to emergencies, and keep our economy running have to be able to afford to live here. This would be a coordinated, countywide effort that brings together government and major employers to produce workforce housing at scale. The program would combine employer-assisted housing, county-backed down payment assistance, and zoning incentives for affordable units near major employment hubs like the I-270 biotech corridor, Route 355, and Purple Line stations. And I’d pair all of this with faster permitting and density incentives so these projects actually get built. Drawing on my corporate and operational background, I would structure this as a public-private partnership with major county employers — hospitals, school systems, tech firms — to fund and build workforce housing for the people who keep this county running. This is not a new concept, but it has never been implemented at the scale or coordination our county requires. I have the management experience to actually get it done. I’ve managed multi million dollar budgets, negotiated complex partnerships, and delivered projects under pressure
Zoning, Supply, and Housing Prices
In your view, how does current zoning policy in Montgomery County affect the supply and price of housing?
Current zoning in Montgomery County is a primary driver of housing scarcity and high prices. Large portions of the county remain zoned exclusively for single-family detached housing, which is among the most expensive and land-intensive housing type to build. This effectively caps density in areas that have access to transit and infrastructure, pushing new development to the periphery where land is cheaper but commutes are longer.
We’ve started to move in the right direction with efforts like the Attainable Housing Strategies initiative and the More Housing N.O.W. framework.But implementation has been uneven and slow and we’re still not building at the scale we need to meet demand. The result is a county where the regulatory environment privileges existing property owners over future residents. I believe we have to do better in allowing more housing types near transit and job centers, while still being thoughtful about the character of our neighborhoods.
What changes would you support to Montgomery County’s zoning policies to support greater housing affordability?
First, I support allowing a broader range of housing types — including duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, and small apartment buildings — in areas currently zoned single-family, especially within a half-mile of transit stops and commercial corridors.
Second, we have to streamline and accelerate the development approval process. I will push for a consolidated permitting portal with mandated timelines — modeled on the Business Express Portal for commercial permits to reduce carrying costs for developers so projects don’t get stuck for months..
Third, I support expanding inclusionary zoning requirements to ensure that as market-rate development increases, affordable units are built alongside it.
Fourth, for transit-adjacent areas especially, I support increased height and density allowances. We’ve already made major investments in infrastructure like the Purple Line and our transit corridors, and our zoning should make it financially viable to build housing where it makes the most sense.
All of these reforms should be implemented with attention to neighborhood context, community input, and anti-displacement protections for existing residents.
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
Affordable housing helps residents who are essential to our community but whom the market will never produce housing at prices they can afford.
These folks areseniors on fixed incomes, people with disabilities, individuals recovering from homelessness, and working families earning at or below 30–60% of area median income. They are our family, our neighbors, and our friends.
I believe affordable housing is foundational infrastructure for a functioning community. A county that cannot house its home care workers, grocery clerks, and childcare providers will eventually be unable to provide the services its residents depend on. Montgomery County has a strong affordable housing ecosystem through DHCA, the Housing Opportunities Commission, and nonprofit partners — but demand consistently outpaces supply, and waiting lists are long.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
Market-rate housing also plays an important role in our community. Households that earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing but struggle to afford what’s available today.. These are young professionals, dual-income families, and many of the workers who keep our economy moving. If we don’t build enough housing for them, they will end up competing for the same limited supply as lower-income residents, which drives prices.
Increasing the supply of market-rate housing also has a ripple effect throughout the market: as higher-income households move into newer units, they vacate older units that become relatively more affordable for moderate-income renters. Market-rate housing also generates tax revenue that funds the county services and affordable housing programs that subsidized residents depend on. A healthy housing market requires both: subsidized units for those at the bottom and sufficient market-rate supply to relieve pressure across the income spectrum.
As Councilmember, I’m committed to supporting affordable housing for those who need it most, and increasing the amount of market-rate housing in our community. Right now we’re not producing enough of either.
What is one policy change in each area that you would pursue, if elected?
a. Affordable (subsidized) housing
I would push to establish multi-year funding agreements with the county's nonprofit affordable housing partners, rather than the current annual grant cycle. Nonprofits operating on one-year funding cycles cannot plan capital projects, hire and retain staff, or build the organizational capacity needed to serve residents consistently. Predictable, multi-year commitments — even at the same overall funding level — would dramatically increase what our nonprofit partners can deliver. This is a management reform as much as a housing policy reform, and it draws directly on my experience running large organizations and working with nonprofits. It’s a simple change, but I believe it would have a real impact.
b. Market-rate (unsubsidized) housing
I would pursue a consolidated, digital permitting portal with mandated 30-day turnaround times for standard residential development applications — modeled on best practices in jurisdictions that have successfully accelerated housing delivery.
Currently, residential developers must navigate multiple county agencies with different timelines, requirements, and staff contacts. This fragmentation adds months to project timelines and thousands of dollars in costs — all of which are passed on to renters and buyers. A unified front door for permitting, with real accountability for processing times, is a cheap way the county can meaningfully increase the pace at which we are building market-rate housing.
Transportation & Smart Growth
What would you do to prioritize transit frequency and access if elected?
Frequent, reliable transit is essential to making life more affordable for the residents of Montgomery County and reducing the county's car-dependence and carbon footprint. If elected, I will advocate for increased county funding for Ride On bus routes , particularly those connecting affordable housing areas to job centers. I will push for real-time transit information and bus shelter improvements in underserved communities.
I will support the full buildout of the Bus Rapid Transit network along Veirs Mill Road, University Boulevard, and New Hampshire Avenue — ensuring these corridors have the frequency and reliability that makes them a genuine alternative to driving. I will also work with the state to hold the Purple Line to its schedule and ridership commitments, and advocate for station-area planning that maximizes walkable density around each stop.
What would you do to ensure safe walking and biking access to transit, stores, schools and services for residents of existing and new housing?
Safe active transportation infrastructure is a basic requirement for residents who cannot drive, cannot afford a car, or choose not to use one. I will advocate for dedicated funding to close sidewalk gaps along major transit corridors and around schools, especially in areas where people are forced to walk in the road today. .
I will support building protected bike lanes on key routes that connect neighborhoods to transit and commercial centers., with particular attention to East County communities that have historically been underserved.
Traffic safety also has to be a part of this conversation. I will push for traffic calming measures: lower speed limits where appropriate, raised crosswalks, better lighting, and signal timing that gives pedestrians a real chance to cross safely.. And I will ensure that new development approvals require complete streets infrastructure as a condition of building permits, so that density increases do not outpace the active transportation network needed to serve them.
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 listening to people who live it every day — not just those with the time and resources to attend public hearings. I would turn to a wide range of sources: Organizations: The Housing Opportunities Commission, DHCA, Montgomery Housing Partnership, Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake, Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, CASA de Maryland, Action in Montgomery, and faith community partners with deep roots in underserved neighborhoods. I would also engage Montgomery for All and the Coalition for Smarter Growth as ongoing policy partners.
I also want to hear directly from the people who are most affected by these policies. I’ll make an effort to talk to residents on affordable housing waiting lists, small landlords, affordable housing developers, transit riders, teachers and essential workers priced out of the county, and business owners along commercial corridors.
On the data side, I would use DHCA's annual housing needs assessment, HOC's waitlist and unit data, census and American Community Survey data on cost burden, the Maryland Department of Planning's housing pipeline data, and MTA ridership data by corridor.
I have spent my career making data-driven decisions in complex organizations where getting the truth required going beyond official reports and talking directly to the people doing the work. I will bring that same instinct to housing policy — combining rigorous data analysis with genuine community engagement to craft policies that actually work.