Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s list of historically underserved communities eligible for special state funding included the tourist hotspot of Ocean City, a fact that caught the eye of one state lawmaker from the area.
Legislation signed by Moore last year designates 419 of Maryland’s 1,463 U.S. Census tracts as “Just Communities,” meaning these “areas of disinvestment” can receive special consideration for $400 million in total Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) funds based on what the governor described as historic racial and socioeconomic inequities. While the majority of Just Communities are in Baltimore City and urban areas near Washington, D.C., two tracts covering most of Ocean City also received the designation, according to an interactive map promoted by the Moore administration.
State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, a Republican who represents Somerset, Worcester and Wicomico counties, told The Baltimore Sun she was “surprised” to see Ocean City on the list along with other places in her district, such as Crisfield and Salisbury. Two other Republican lawmakers, Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready and Del. Matt Morgan, told The Sun that Ocean City’s inclusion was “odd.”
“From looking at what’s in the bill and looking at the DHCD score factors, what I determined was the reason … Ocean City was put on the list was because of the vacancy housing [rate], and the occupied housing unit percentage being below the state average,” Carozza said.
According to DHCD Communications Director Allison Foster, “commercial/residential vacancy” is one of nine factors the state used to determine the areas that would receive a Just Community designation. The eight others are:
- Priority funding areas
- Low home ownership rates
- Property value trends
- History of redlining
- High imprisonment rates
- Proximity to Superfund sites
- Lead-based paint exposure rates
- Rates of asthma among older adults
According to the map, the two Just Community areas based in Ocean City — Tracts No. 950000 and 951000 — included unusually high vacancy rates of 82.9% and 90.7%, respectively. Tract No. 950000 covers the entire developed area south of 33rd Street, and Tract No. 951000 covers most developed areas between 33rd and 118th Streets.
While Foster said that “no one, individual data point is responsible for any given census tract to be designated as a Just Community,” Carozza believes the unique nature of Ocean City as a vacation destination means these vacancy numbers are indicative of its short-term rental market than of challenges with vacant properties in Baltimore and other urban areas.
“The reason you would have the vacancy housing and the percentage below the state average is because [of] the seasonal nature of Ocean City,” Carozza said. “Those are rentals, so it’s tied to the seasonal nature of Ocean City and not tied to some of the other criteria of the bill.”
According to DHCD data, both Ocean City tracts received a Just Communities score of between 11.5 and 14, placing them in the second-highest quartile of all tracts considered for the designation statewide. A score of 13.5 was the final cutoff for receiving Just Community status, meaning Ocean City was not deemed one of the areas most critically in need of funding by the program.
While it is not clear how much money Ocean City could receive, the Just Communities initiative frees up $400 million in DCHD funds to be spread across the 419 eligible tracts across Maryland. Just Community funding through DHCD’s competitive scoring process works similarly to the state’s Sustainable Communities or Priority Funding Area designations, according to Foster.
State data for Ocean City, which had a full-time population that was about 90% white and less than 1% Black according to the 2020 U.S. Census, shows the area does not have a high incarceration rate and lacks available data for both redlining and asthma rates. The city’s poverty rate was slightly below Maryland’s state average, according to U.S. Census data from 2024.
Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.
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