In 1987, the Maryland legislature combined programs for low-income housing, home financing,
building codes, planning and community development, and historic preservation to form the Department
of Housing and Community Development (Chapter 311, Acts of 1987). The Department works to ensure
available housing at all income levels, encourage strong neighborhoods and viable communities, and
preserve Maryland's historical and cultural heritage. The Department funds or insures loans for purchase
and construction of housing for low-income families; assists low- and moderate-income families to buy or
rehabilitate houses; and aids nonprofit organizations with grants or loans to provide housing for
special-needs groups such as the elderly, developmentally disabled, and homeless. The Department also
distributes federal rent subsidies to low-income families; oversees construction, including prefabricated
buildings and mobile homes, to ensure that it meets building code standards; and offers weatherization
and energy conservation aid to qualified groups and households. To revitalize commercial districts and
blighted areas, plan future growth and resource development, and provide adequate housing for citizens
not served by the private sector, the Department funnels federal and State funds to communities and
supports community action and regional development agencies. In addition, the Department finances
historical preservation, archaeology, museum services, and cultural heritage commissions. Departmental
programs help communities plan for the future.

Most functions now supervised by the Department originally fell outside the scope of government.
Maryland communities grew initially with few restrictions and little planning, and shelter was a private
responsibility. Local jurisdictions had little authority or interest in overseeing construction or development
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. How houses were built was limited by the skill of the builder,
the availability of supplies, and the pocketbook of the owner. No governmental codes or regulations labeled
structures substandard, although many must have been. In rare cases, the legislature sheltered the poor
in private homes or later in county almshouses, but generally, poor persons, like everyone else, housed
themselves and their families as best they could. Local building codes began tentatively in some localities
in the eighteenth century; planning and zoning did not emerge as governmental responsibilities until the
twentieth century. Zoning legislation, now a major tool for community development and planning, was
passed for Baltimore City in 1927 and for the counties in 1933.

New Deal legislation of the 1930s initiated federal involvement in housing. In its housing programs,
Maryland followed the federal lead and relied upon federal funding. The Housing Authorities Law of 1937
sought to remove the menace of insanitary and unsafe housing and to alleviate unemployment (Chapter 517,