BALTIMORE -- Maryland lawmakers are considering an unprecedented number of bills addressing the quality and nature of elder care as the state grapples with a growing senior population.

With the number of Marylanders 65 or older growing at more than 3% per year — more than four times the rate of the rest of the population — and costs for senior care on the rise, Maryland, like many other states, is facing a crisis experts say is only going to get worse. And legislators are taking notice.

The House of Delegates and the State Senate are considering more than 20 bills in the current legislative session that aim to improve care for seniors, including measures designed to boost support for the state’s burgeoning population of unpaid family caregivers, ease some of the costs of senior housing, and provide a hike in minimum pay and a right to paid leave for at-home caregivers.

Most notably, lawmakers will decide whether to codify a plan that establishes a framework for reenvisioning the state’s overall approach to elder care. Longevity Ready Maryland, as it’s known, provides an 88-page blueprint that calls for a “multisector, whole-of-government” approach that would streamline an elder care system, its planners say, that contains too many organizational silos to handle the quickly ballooning size of the senior population.

Sara Westrick, state advocacy director for AARP Maryland, said Longevity Ready Maryland — developed over 18 months through a collaborative process involving state agencies, advisory committees and members of the public — provides both a rallying cry for reform at a pivotal moment and a lens through which lawmakers can look as they craft future legislation.

Westrick said recent media coverage of aging issues, including a Spotlight on Maryland series on unlicensed senior housing facilities, has helped focus legislators’ attention on aging policy, and that Longevity Ready Maryland — which legislators would codify in the form of a bill — exemplifies the commitment to addressing aging issues she sees taking hold in Annapolis. The Spotlight series identified more than 115 homes operating as part of a shadow network of unlicensed senior care homes in Baltimore.

“There’s been a lot of emphasis on the growing demographic of older people,” she said. “I’d say that as many as 25 bills specifically focus on long-term care reform. And the Longevity Ready Maryland plan, and the bill that would [codify] it, has galvanized a lot of that attention.”

The ideas underlying the plan, known to advocates as LRM, are not unique to Maryland. Fifteen other states had issued comparable blueprints — known as “multi-sector aging plans,” as of 2024, according to the nonprofit Center for Health Care Strategies, which focuses on improving health care for low-income populations, particularly through Medicaid.

Twenty-three others were in the exploratory phase at the time. Gov. Wes Moore initiated the planning process for Maryland’s plan by executive order in January 2024.

“Our administration made a commitment to honor the lives and contributions of older Marylanders by expanding access to critical care and services,” Moore said at the time. “If we are going to meet the 21st century needs of this rapidly changing demographic, we must evaluate our programs, advocate for change, target resources, and formulate data-driven policies with a whole-of-government approach.”

The plan, launched last July, creates a framework for action and structural reform over the next decade. It calls for aligning programs across an array of state agencies, and for bolstering partnerships among state agencies, businesses and nonprofits, as a way of helping seniors live longer, more independently and in better health in the state.

Among other emphases, it contains a range of recommendations aimed at helping more seniors age at home, a choice that studies show promotes independence and mental health, costs less than assisted living at least in the short term, and is the preference of most older Americans.

That’s a crucial need, given that demand for senior services outstrips supply by a wide margin, so that thousands of Marylanders who meet eligibility requirements are on wait lists that can last years. By that time, many will have taken another, more expensive route or even died, said Allison Ciborowski, the president and CEO of LeadingAge Maryland, a membership association of nonprofit service providers for seniors.

“The work that went into LRM was well thought out, and that has helped make it a very robust plan for how to make better use of the resources we have to match where things are today,” said Ciborowski, whose organization backs the plan. “Putting it in statutes would place a stake in the ground. It’s so important that we don’t want it to be able to change when a new administration takes office.”

LRM, advocates say, is a framework whose details will be filled in as time goes on. But the other bills under consideration already reflect one of its core ideas — that because elder care has multiple interweaving facets, addressing the state’s needs will require input from multiple directions, not just the Department of Aging.

The Starter and Silver Homes Act of 2026 is essentially a zoning measure. Backed by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, it would bar local jurisdictions from enforcing a range of restrictions on the construction of single-family homes, theoretically lowering housing costs for older Marylanders who wish to age in place. Introduced last month, it has been referred to the House Economic Matters Committee.

A measure backed by Del. Leslie J. Lopez (D- Montgomery County) would require agencies that provide in-home services to seniors to pay their aides at least $17 per hour — a rate that would increase $1 per year through 2030 — and provide them with earned sick and family leave.

“These are our caregivers; they’re coming into homes to do their essential work, and if they’re not well, we need them to be able to take time off,” said Westrick, the AARP Maryland director, who planned to testify at a hearing on the matter Thursday.

Meanwhile, an aging-in-place bill sponsored by Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D- Baltimore County) would allow the Department of Aging to make grants to nonprofits and other agencies to help individuals aging at home build social networks by attending gatherings at multigenerational community sites. The measure has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

Like Lopez’s bill, it has been referred to the House Health Committee.

LRM, meanwhile, calls for measures that range from expanding home-repair and home-modification programs for seniors who need to install safety upgrades to urging local governments and organizations to adopt models for developing so-called “age-friendly communities.”

Seven counties and one city in Maryland have already achieved metrics established by AARP to qualify as such communities. The program calls on jurisdictions across the United States to improve in areas ranging from making crosswalks more pedestrian-friendly and signage easier to read for seniors and others to offering more affordable senior housing.

Baltimore, Baltimore County, Howard County and Hyattsville are among the communities that have risen to the challenge, said Jen Holz, AARP Maryland’s associate director of outreach.

“We call it age-friendly, but we’re talking about a range of positive effects on people of all ages, not just older adults,” Holz said. “We’re looking at that multigenerational spin.”

Advocates hope the ongoing push will improve the state’s ranking by AARP as 14th in the country for long-term services for the elderly.

Ciborowsky, of LeadingAge Maryland, sees the LRM framework as essential to the process — and assuming it’s adopted, hopes stakeholders will maintain their commitment to change within that broader framework.

“Given the scope of the demographic shifts we’re seeing, I’d love to see the changes go faster, but things take a long time in state government, and being an advocate in this work, you have to be patient,” she said. “But we’re definitely heading in the right direction.”

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