At a time when nonprofits are struggling with declines in donations, Howard County's primary homeless shelter is taking the scion of one of the area's most prominent families to court over a $4,834.80 security deposit.
Leaders of the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center in Columbia are angry at what they see as an attempt by a former landlord to take advantage of a charity.
"We work hard for every penny we get," said Grassroots' director, Andrea Ingram. "It's a huge amount of money if you think of it in terms of donations."
Bruce Taylor, a psychiatrist whose family has had land and commercial properties in Ellicott City for 70 years through three generations, said keeping part of the deposit is justified because of damage that was found when the nonprofit departed.
"It's a shame that it has come to this," he said. "They do some very good work."
At stake is a portion of a $10,500 security deposit paid by Grassroots to lease a vacant house from Taylor's firm in September 2006 at his family's former private psychiatric hospital in Ellicott City. Sheppard Pratt has operated the hospital there since 2002, but the Taylor family owns the property. In recent years, the Taylors have developed some of the land near the hospital campus into an upscale housing development for seniors.
Rent on the house used as a temporary homeless shelter by Grassroots was $10,000 a month for one year and then rose to $10,500.
When a new, larger Grassroots building was finished in May 2008, the county's homeless left the two-story, wood frame house known as Building 21. It remains vacant, Taylor said.
Ingram said 10 homeless men were housed on the first floor and families with children used 20 beds on the second floor in a dormitory-style arrangement. Grassroots' administrative offices and other programs were housed in a county-owned house in Savage.
Grassroots had $35,000 in donated plumbing and other minor renovations done to the house to make it suit the purpose, Ingram said, and that was left intact when the agency moved out. Grassroots officials contend that they left the building better than they found it.
Taylor's firm, Historic Ellicott City Properties, says that damage to the building was found when Grassroots left. Ingram contends that nearly all of the damage was there before the lease began, and she says she has photos to prove it. A District Court trial is scheduled for April 13.
