In one of his final acts as Baltimore County executive, Johnny Olszewski Jr. on Tuesday signed an executive order requiring new housing developments to offer a percentage of units at reduced rental rates.

Aimed at beefing up the county’s “affordable” housing stock, the mandate applies to housing developers who receive financial support from the county. It takes effect immediately, has no expiration date and will proceed until another county executive repeals, amends or supersedes it.

The executive order, dropped by Olszewski as he prepares to enter U.S. Congress next month, is a retort to Baltimore County Council members who have attempted to put guardrails on the administration’s housing affordability and productivity goals. The county executive has spent the last several months butting heads with the council over topics such as zoning and land use, school capacity and density; the council has responded at times by backing Olszewski into corners and overturning his veto.

In a statement, Olszewski described the last-minute measure as a “moral and legal obligation.”

“Leaders have an obligation to do whatever they can to create attainable housing opportunities that allow residents to put down roots and join vibrant neighborhoods,” Olszewski said in a Tuesday news release.

Part of the executive order asks the county to collaborate with developers by supplying loans, grants, tax credits or other incentives to help them meet the affordability requirement. Another section encourages the county to establish “data-driven criteria” to further expand housing opportunities countywide.

In the midst of national housing supply and affordability challenges, Maryland pegs its own deficit at around 96,000 units. Of those, as many as 33,000 are needed in the Baltimore metro area, according to state estimates.

Baltimore County leaders and housing advocates have sparred over the urgency of the problem. Council members have asserted that constituents are sometimes loathe to welcome more housing into their communities, pointing to concerns about traffic, crowded schools and environmental impacts. The pro-housing camp has pointed to the county’s declining population, aging infrastructure and growing budget needs as evidence for building new housing and expanding the tax base now.

With the county under a federal consent decree to add 1,000 new affordable housing units by 2028 to make up for decades of past housing discrimination, the pushback to new housing has also at times centered on race and class. Republican County Councilman Todd Crandell, for example, wrote in a social media post earlier this year that his district, for example, didn’t need any more “low-income subsidized housing,” and called the administration’s zoning attempts “outrageous.”

Democrats on the Baltimore County Council have joined with the Republican members to slow the housing agenda, too. This past summer, a coalition supported by members of both parties overturned the county executive’s veto of an ordinance that sought to restrict home building in districts with schools above capacity; an amended version of the ordinance allows for some affordable housing production in those districts to help the county meet its 2028 goal.

County Councilman Julian Jones, a Democrat who opposed the school overcrowding bill, said at the time that the council could have supported a whole-county redistricting process or rallied for more school construction — more politically divisive measures. Instead, he said, they latched onto housing at their own peril.

Olszewski’s affordable housing mandate, also known in the academic world as an inclusionary housing measure, would require developers to designate at least 10% of the units for households earning 60% of the area median income and another 10% for those earning 80% of the area median income. For two people, that equates to combined incomes of about $54,000 and $78,000, respectively.

County Council Chair Izzy Patoka, who has diverged with the county executive on some housing issues — including the school overcrowding debate — said while he supports Olszewski’s executive order, he thinks it holds a more “symbolic” value than a practical one.

Executive orders, he said, can be undone “through the stroke of the pen” and don’t carry as much weight as a modification to the county code or charter.

Still, Patoka said, the county needs to find ways to add more housing without forcing it upon reluctant communities with founded concerns.

“There is a sweet spot between where the data is going and also what the community sentiment is,” Patoka said. “There is a way to find that sweet spot.”

Baltimore County isn’t the first to try its hand at inclusionary housing as a way to accommodate households at the low ends of the income spectrum. Baltimore City passed its inclusionary housing bill package at the end of last year; its implementation has been slow moving so far. Anne Arundel County followed this past year after a failed attempt in 2023 that pitted County Executive Steuart Pittman against members of the council.

The need for more housing in the county is staggering. As the county ages and older affordable housing complexes outlive their useful lives, there haven’t been enough replacement homes for residents to move to. As is the case with one of the county’s largest complexes, governments tend drag their feet at condemning or shutting down unsafe housing for fear of where else their residents may go.

Meanwhile, the median sales prices of homes in the county has grown to $360,000, up 10% from this time last year, according to data from Bright MLS, the multiple listing service for property sales. Homes are spending a median of 11 days on the market — among the shortest time frames in the Baltimore area.

As county executive, Olszewski has taken on housing as a pet issue. He created the county’s first Department of Housing and Community Development; spearheaded an anti-housing discrimination act; and worked with Baltimore Harborplace developer MCB Real Estate on a deal to preserve 460 units of affordable housing in what could be the largest agreement of its kind in Baltimore County.

To date, the county has won approval to add a little more than 900 of the 1,000 required units under the voluntary consent agreement.

Some say the work can’t stop after Olszewski leaves office.

Claudia Wilson Randall, the executive director of the Community Development Network of Maryland, applauded Olszewski’s executive order. But she also noted that as many as 50,000 households in the county pay more than 30% of their income on rent, which the federal government categorizes as being “rent-burdened.” These households, she said, need more relief.

“These are people who live in Baltimore County; workers in offices, hospitals and retail establishments, older adults living on social security and disability income trying to make ends meet,” she said, “and the market alone will not address their needs.”