Special Advertising Feature
Executive Director | Chesapeake Neighbors
Judi Olinger has spent her career ensuring that people across Maryland have access to safe, affordable, and beautiful places to live. She and her team manage more than 80 units throughout the region. These units are not just affordable housing; they are thoughtfully designed spaces built with sustainability, accessibility, and community integration in mind. Under Olinger’s leadership, Chesapeake Neighbors is redefining affordable housing.
Why is affordable housing important in our communities?
Affordable housing meets a fundamental community need and is essential to any healthy, thriving community. When people at all income levels can live where they work, go to school, and access essential resources, the entire community benefits. Affordable housing strengthens the local economy by supporting businesses, attracting a stable workforce, and fostering long-term investment in neighborhoods.
Beyond economics, affordable housing promotes diversity, inclusion, and social stability. It ensures that teachers, healthcare workers, service industry employees, and others who contribute to the community can also be part of it.
When people have safe, stable housing, they can focus on their jobs, education, and families, resulting in stronger, more connected communities where everyone can succeed.
How are you reimagining affordable housing?
People often carry assumptions about affordable housing. Unless I point it out, you wouldn’t know whether a unit is market-rate or meant for a family transitioning out of homelessness, and that is intentional. We are showing the community that housing can be affordable and beautiful. Our units have energy-efficient appliances, modern design elements, and desirable amenities; they’re made with high-quality materials that are aesthetically pleasing and built to last.
We’re also changing the tenant experience by providing professional maintenance and property management services that meet people where they are in their busy lives. What affordable housing has been and what it can be are very different things. We are challenging people to think differently about what people throughout the community want, need, and deserve.
Who is the average Chesapeake Neighbors tenant?
Our tenants reflect the communities around them and include everyone from very low-income earners to market-rate renters. They are people with disabilities, families transitioning out of homelessness, single parents renting their first apartment, and local professionals. Our scattered-site, mixed-income model creates diverse, integrated communities where people from different backgrounds live side by side.
Chesapeake Neighbors | 1332 Donald Avenue | Severn, MD 21144 | 410-384-4560 | chesapeakeneighbors.org
