I write to express my absolute incredulity that Thomas Thomsett of the Maryland Multi-Housing Association could claim with a straight face that housing vouchers are used in Timonium and White Marsh ("Baltimore County weighs bill to ban housing voucher discrimination," July 4).
While technically true for Timonium, the same can't be said for White Marsh, home of what seems to be millions of apartments and condos, where there is just one. One! Together those 14 rentals represent 0.2 percent of all the vouchers in Baltimore County.
While I am sure that the hurdles presented by the lack of affordable units in the central part of the county is real, I am also confident that discrimination against low-income families by landlords is also real.
The Sun would be doing its readership a great service by identifying the ZIP codes that have few or no vouchers being used. I wasn't surprised to see Lutherville-Timonium — my own affluent ZIP code — already identified.
I urge the County Council to pass this bill. It is a start to remedying the rampant discrimination that, unfortunately, Baltimore County practiced in the past. Let's leave it there.
Camille Dobson