Takoma Park mayoral election brings affordable housing to the forefront

Takoma Park mayoral candidates can’t agree on how to address the city’s affordable housing problem amidst the progression of a redevelopment proposal on Maple Avenue.

Both incumbent Mayor Talisha Searcy and her opponent, former city attorney Tom Gagliardo, agree that affordable housing in Takoma Park is a necessity. However, Searcy’s policy on encouraging development is a point of contention between the two candidates and a potential decisive factor in this year’s mayoral election.

“I really want to get out of this 20-year rut of not having new housing,” said Searcy. “It shouldn’t be the case that because you don’t meet a certain income bracket that you should just take what you can get.”

The Takoma Park Board of Elections officially announced the candidates for the 2026 Takoma Park city elections, including those for the city’s mayoral election, at its nominating caucus on Sept. 15. Searcy will face Gagliardo in the elections held on Nov. 3.

Over her past two terms as mayor, Searcy has sought to address Takoma Park’s affordable housing dilemma. As a resident and previous council member for Ward 6, she said she was all too familiar with the multi-family units in Takoma Park, many of which are in disrepair.

According to Searcy, her goal was simple: make housing affordable, available and quality. As someone who has experienced living in housing that was substandard, she said that she is willing to have “hard conversations” with the community, but the requirement is action and results.

“It is not enough to rest on principle,” said Searcy. “It is about making sure that we have people in place that are really willing to do the hard work to get the decisions made.”

According to Searcy, much of her policy has been focused on strategy and facilitating solutions. She said she has worked to both educate tenants on their rights as well as reform Takoma Park’s rent stabilization law, which hasn’t been reviewed since 2007.

However, her strategy of incentivizing development in the city is where her opponent, Gagliardo, disagrees.

Searcy’s policies will encourage developers to build in Takoma Park, Gagliardo wrote in the email. “But there are few places where building can occur, except by tearing down smaller buildings.”

Gagliardo, who has lived and worked in Takoma Park since 1976, is in favor of rezoning and development of buildings like the ones on Hospital Hill, the former campus of Washington Adventist Hospital, which relocated in 2019.

But Gagliardo said that proposals, like those for the Edinburgh House on Maple Avenue come at the expense of long-time residents and the character of Takoma Park neighborhoods.

In an email to The Wash, Gagliardo said that with the space on Hospital Hill, changes to Maple Avenue such as the proposal for Edinburgh House, are “unnecessary.” He said the conversation around housing in Takoma Park is “nuanced and complex and requires balancing competing interests.”

“Hospital Hill is a rare opportunity to build marketplace, workforce, and affordable housing without displacing anyone,” Gagliardo wrote. “Vision, leadership and cooperation among all stakeholders is required.”

Montgomery Housing Partnership, the current property owners of Edinburgh House apartments, is seeking to convert the building into 176 affordable units on the same site. The proposal to demolish and redevelop the 45-unit low-rise apartment building on Maple Avenue is in a general interest stage now, but could begin construction as soon as 2028.

Though favorable to some, it has brought considerable concern from both Edinburgh House and greater Takoma Park residents alike in both community interest meetings and online discussions.

“We’re not going to be homeless. Sometimes, you move from one home after so many years and start anew,” said Leon Crowell, a long-time Takoma Park and Edinburgh House resident.

For Crowell, this will be his second time relocating within Takoma Park due to development. Though his previous experience with both MHP and the city government brings him comfort, he understands the community concern about what future development may bring to Takoma Park.

However, he said he still sees the change as good and necessary.

“We do need more housing. We need more affordable housing,” said Crowell. “So I say, tear down the old buildings.”

While MHP and the city government have held multiple community conversations to address potential worries, residents question what impact the redevelopment will have on affordability and even access for the surrounding area.

However, some residents are more concerned with what is readily available to the community now than anything else.

Eva Black, a Takoma Park native who recently relocated back to the city, said as someone who found herself searching for a long time, that “there’s still room for improvement” in Takoma Park.

Black said that while construction impacts on infrastructure and traffic patterns are not things she wants overlooked, she’s not against growth if it means change to the current affordability situation.

“It’s very hard to find a place that one would want to live in and that’s affordable,” said Black. “Everyone has a right to a comfortable place to live.”