Affordable Housing

The fate of a proposed affordable housing community in Glen Burnie is in limbo after an Anne Arundel County Council vote to delay a proposed tax break that the project's developer says it needs to move forward. Councilman John J. Grasso, a Glen Burnie Republican whose district includes the planned Marley Meadows development, pushed for the delay, which was unanimously approved by the council Monday. Members will now vote on the $5,000 annual tax break at a Nov. 21 meeting, a timeline that officials said could potentially derail the controversial project.

Kevin Rector was quite astute in bringing up the moratorium on new residential rehabilitation program beds that has been in place since 2000 ("County's mentally ill face chronic housing shortage," Catonsville Times and Arbutus Times , Oct. 12). There was a fairly vibrant affordable housing development effort going on before the moratorium that was moving toward filling the need of those hospitalized or in danger of being hospitalized because of psychiatric disorders.

A plan to build an affordable housing development in Glen Burnie has ignited a heated debate among members of the Anne Arundel County Council. Councilman John J. Grasso, a Glen Burnie Republican whose district includes the planned Marley Meadows development, spoke out against the plans at a recent County Council meeting, saying low-income residents are likely to bring crime to the area, an assertion quickly dismissed by some of his colleagues....

Laura Elizabeth McGrath, a Columbia-based affordable housing advocate, died of colon cancer Sept. 22 at her Hyattsville home. The former Northeast Baltimore resident was 46. Born in Baltimore and raised in Gardenville on LaSalle Avenue, she was a 1982 Western High School graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She also had a master's degree in applied anthropology with a concentration in urban planning and community development.

One of the U.S. Senate's most aggressive watchdogs said Thursday he has begun an inquiry into Baltimore's public housing agency, after receiving calls and emails concerning "a wide range of allegations, including possible conflicts of interest, fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayers' monies. " Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, requested reams of documents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees housing authorities around the country and steers millions of dollars a year to Baltimore.

Your report using the figure of $220,000 for the "average sale price of a typical home" tells us nothing about what workers in relatively low-paying jobs can afford ("Housing costs out of reach for many Maryland workers," July 21). How about a more useful story about the difficulties ordinary people face in finding affordable housing? And stop using averages for housing costs and give us the median numbers. In the future, take the time to do a more in-depth look at your subject before publishing an alarming but not so useful article.

Editor: Upon review of the recent editorial in The Aegis that highlighted the issue of homelessness in the county, I think it is important to point out how complex this issue is. The phenomenon of homelessness is not a seasonal issue, rather the tragedy that affects far too many individuals and families in Harford County. Resources, though available, are stretched throughout the year to serve hundreds of people coming through the doors of community and nonprofit organizations.

Michael D. Ullman is simultaneously right and wrong in his views on a Baltimore homeless shelter ("Not a home, not a help," June 29). The practices he advocates would turn back the clock to the early 1980s, when homelessness was ignored by the public sector. As Dr. Ullman begins with a sports analogy, let's start with his homeruns: Permanent supportive housing is the true solution to homelessness. That's absolutely right. Shelters are costlier than permanent housing. But add those two ideas together and it doesn't add up to a moratorium against new shelters.

Marylanders on average have to pay more for houses than the typical homebuyer across the country, according to a new survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate. Coldwell Banker reports the national average price of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house is $293,251. In Maryland, that house would go for $381,314. Coldwell Banker allows you to comparison shop markets on its site. There you can find that a 250,000 house in Baltimore would cost you $652,778 in Annapolis -- ouch. But that house would only cost you $152,778 in Cumberland.