Because Maryland does not identify specific requirements for assessments of fair housing in housing elements, local jurisdictions have discretion over the contents of their assessments. However, MDP recommends that housing elements include the following four categories of analysis in a fair housing assessment: 

• Segregation: planners should use data to understand whether their community is segregated by protected characteristics or other factors. Common measures of segregation include a dissimilarity index, interaction index, and isolation index. 
• Racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty: Planners should use the Maryland EnviroScreen Tool​ described in the “Additional Resources” section on this page to identify local “underserved communities” with high concentrations of low-income, nonwhite, or non-English speaking residents. 
• Disproportionate housing needs: planners should investigate whether protected classes (race, age, disability status, etc.) have disproportionate housing needs in their community. This analysis should demonstrate whether any protected class experiences a higher rate of housing problems than other classes in the region. Planners can identify whether there are disproportionate housing needs using the CHAS data described in the “Additional Resources” section on this page. If there are disproportionate housing needs, planners should also consider what local policies contribute to disparate impacts and what can be done to correct them. 
• Disparity in access to opportunity: After analyzing patterns of segregation across their community, planners should consider whether segregation creates disparate access to opportunity for protected classes. This may include a mapping analysis demonstrating disparate access to healthcare, education, employment, transportation, food, and environmentally healthy neighborhoods. Disparate access may be caused by a lack of affordable transportation options connecting segregated areas and areas of opportunity or a lack of housing options in areas of opportunity. ​