HED: Maryland Public Defender briefing highlights new laws on housing, child support and jury service 

By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD) assembled community members in West Baltimore on June 24 for a briefing examining new state laws affecting housing, child support, jury service and reentry in 2026. The conversation was part of the OPD’s “In Defense of Us” series, which travels to different areas of the state to discuss community and justice-related issues.

Christopher Dews, policy consultant for the Center for Urban Families (CFUF), highlighted bills aimed at strengthening economic stability for families. The first, Senate Bill 651, addresses tangled titles, which can occur when a homeowner dies without legally transferring ownership of the property to their heirs. This often prevents families from fully inheriting homes and can leave properties vulnerable to tax sale.

The new law, which goes into effect on Oct. 1, allows homeowners to designate who will inherit their property through a Transfer on Death Deed (TODD)—allowing ownership to transfer automatically upon death without probate. 

“The Transfer Death on Deed is designed to ensure that when it comes to legacy wealth, those houses and properties stay in the family so they can build intergenerational wealth,” said Dews. 

Another bill Dews highlighted was the Fair Chance Housing Act, or Senate Bill 937, which limits the use of criminal history in rental housing decisions. The law prohibits landlords with more than five rental units from denying housing based on most misdemeanor convictions. 

It also bars landlords from considering felony convictions that are more than five years old, except in cases of homicide, human trafficking, sex offenses, crimes against children and certain methamphetamine-related offenses involving federally assisted housing.

Beyond housing, Dews pointed to upcoming changes in Maryland’s child support system, including House Bill 142. Currently, the state allows up to 65 percent of a noncustodial parent’s wages to be garnished for child support, which Dews said can effectively discourage employment and leave low-income parents unable to afford basic living expenses.

“When an individual comes home with 35 percent of their check, which is mostly on the disposable income side, they just drop out of the workforce,” said Dews. “Thirty-five percent of your check is not enough to live on in this modern economy.” 

Under the new legislation, the maximum garnishment for eligible low-income parents will be reduced to 35 percent by 2028. 

Jury service in Maryland also saw some updates this session. Heather Warnken, executive director of the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore School of Law, spotlighted Senate Bill 322, which eliminated the lifetime ban on jury service for individuals convicted of felonies and certain misdemeanors punishable by a year or more of incarceration. 

Warnken said the change was especially significant given that the state’s former policy excluded roughly one in three Black men from jury pools— raising concerns about access to fair trials.

“Jury service is one form of civic participation that the Supreme Court has called one of the most meaningful ways that ordinary citizens participate in democracy and become instruments of public justice in our communities,” said Warnken. “When you have a jury of your peers that actually reflects people that have a range of different life experiences and have experienced the system, their ability to sit in judgment and deliberate on the facts of the case and reach just outcomes is dramatically changed.”

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