Housing Units

One in 9 housing units in the Baltimore region sat empty last year, from well-tended homes for sale to boarded-up shells, according to new estimates from the Census Bureau . That's on the high side but not nearly the highest. The agency measured vacancy for the 75 largest metro areas -- not counting vacation properties shuttered in the off-season -- and says the Baltimore region is in a three-way tie with Chicago and Pittsburgh for the 26th worst rate. (It's 11.6 percent, to be exact.)

Baltimore's housing office has disbanded its security unit, laying off seven sworn police officers, the agency said Thursday. The duties of the Lease Enforcement Unit - which investigates criminal activity in public housing to determine if a resident has violated his or her lease - will be assumed by housing's Inspector General's office, which investigates fraud, waste and abuse, said Cheron Porter, a spokeswoman for Baltimore Housing. "The Housing Authority of Baltimore City budget has suffered cuts generally over the past couple of years and with sequestration, more cuts could be on the horizon," Porter said in an email.

BALTIMORE'S highly publicized -- and seemingly successful -- drive to replace subsidized high-rises with new communities has a dark flip side: The rest of the city's public housing effort is a mess. Half of the Housing Authority's 2,800 scattered-site rowhouses are vacant. Most of those units are vandalized; many are open to the elements. Meanwhile, several aging low-rise complexes -- including Claremont Homes, O'Donnell Heights and McCulloh Homes -- are in poor shape and cursed with vacancies, even though 5,278 Baltimoreans are on a waiting list for public housing units.

The number of Maryland homes and apartments expanded by 10,000 from mid-2010 to the middle of last year, according to new Census Bureau estimates -- still far below the pace of expansion the state is used to seeing. From 2001 to 2006, the annual increase ranged from 23,000 to 26,000 units. Then builders hit the brakes. Housing expanded by 19,000 units in 2007, 14,000 in 2008 and just under 9,000 in 2009. You've all heard the reasons a thousand times: Housing bust, recession, greater difficulties getting financing whether you're a home buyer or a builder.

According to information provided by the Baltimore County Planning Department, only three of the 19 county elementary schools projected to be near or over the 20 percent over capacity limit by September have any new housing proposed within their district boundaries. They are:* Glyndon Elementary, at 445 Glyndon Drive, Reisterstown, projected to be 18 percent over capacity, has 34 housing units planned within its district.* Hebbville Elementary, 3335 Washington Ave., near Liberty Road and the Beltway, projected to be 40 percent over capacity, has 12 housing units proposed nearby.

Betty Hyatt has spent 20 years seeing that the decaying housing in her East Baltimore neighborhood of Washington Hill is replaced by new housing for homeowners.About 800 new housing units later, she is just one project away from seeing her job completed.The city Board of Estimates yesterday authorized the Department of Housing and Community Development to apply for a federal Urban Development Action Grant worth slightly more than $1 million to finish the job.The grant would help finance a $4.5 million housing project expected to provide 66 new low- and middle-income housing units around the 1400 block of E. Baltimore St.More than half of the housing would be two- and three-bedroom condominium units with the rest being single-family townhouses.

Washington -- April and May have been -- literally -- the most explosive months in the history of public housing in America.At 9 a.m. on April 30, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and Philadelphia city officials pushed a ceremonial plunger igniting 660 pounds of dynamite to implode five towers of the 41-year-old Raymond Rosen Homes in North Philadelphia.Good riddance, wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer's Acel Moore, of a project which for 30 years has ''been an island -- a black township -- where crime, violence and drugs flourished.

In some corners of Howard County, it seems, affordable housing is pushing up against a wall of elitism. Consider Democratic county council member Shane Pendergrass' opposition to new subsidized housing in Elkridge."

DEVELOPERS who eschew affordable housing in their quest for fatter sales prices aren't as disappointing as the politicians who let them get away with it. Elected officials should have the greater community's interest in mind.They don't when they are so shortsighted as to not see the consequences of building only upscale housing. Yet that appears to be happening in Howard County.The first two large developments proposed under the county's new law requiring a certain amount of affordable housing may be able to skirt the requirement.

The federal takeover of both the Washington, D.C., and Chicago housing authorities places the problems within Baltimore's public housing program in perspective. Avoiding the fates of those agencies should certainly make Baltimore Housing Authority Director Daniel P. Henson III feel some vindication amid criticism of his tactics. But that doesn't mean everything here is as it should be.Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros announced in early May that a court-appointed receiver would assume total control of the D.C. public housing agency.

One in 9 housing units in the Baltimore region sat empty last year, from well-tended homes for sale to boarded-up shells, according to new estimates from the Census Bureau . That's on the high side but not nearly the highest. The agency measured vacancy for the 75 largest metro areas -- not counting vacation properties shuttered in the off-season -- and says the Baltimore region is in a three-way tie with Chicago and Pittsburgh for the 26th worst rate. (It's 11.6 percent, to be exact.)

The ongoing housing and jobs crises were submerged by the saga over what to do about federal debt. Unfortunately, with triggers in place for deeper cuts, the solution to the debt saga may come at the expense of a successful public/private partnership that actually addresses the housing and jobs crises. For nearly 25 years, the federal government has encouraged the development of affordable rental housing by using a unique federal tax credit — one that fosters a strong partnership between public and private interests, while benefiting families and local communities.

A key City Council committee backed Wednesday the indefinite extension of law that requires developers to build affordable housing units along with market-rate homes, but it is unclear how the measure will fare when the full council takes it up next week. The 2007 law requires developers to set aside a percentage of homes, condominiums or apartments in large developments that receive significant public subsidies or meet other criteria to be sold or rented at lower rates. Advocates of affordable housing say the law was watered down in 2007 when the council — following the recommendations of a panel of developers — passed nearly 100 amendments, including some that slowed the implementation of the law. Only one development, Union Mill in Hampden, has triggered the set-aside, resulting in the construction of 10 affordable units.

Health advocates and landlords squared off Thursday in Annapolis over a proposal to beef up Maryland's lead-paint law, which both sides agree has succeeded in drastically reducing the number of young children poisoned in older rental homes. Advocates, pediatricians and health officials urged the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee to approve a bill that would require landlords to test for lead dust in rental units built before 1950 if they are to be occupied by families with children.

An underground electrical conduit caught fire yesterday morning at an Elkridge senior-housing complex, leading fire officials to evacuate the building and temporarily shelter 100 residents at a nearby library, authorities said. Howard County firefighters were called to the four-story building in the 6300 block of Rowanberry Drive about 5:30 a.m. to check on reports of a natural gas leak. Instead, firefighters found high levels of carbon monoxide in the building and immediately began relocating residents to a library across the street from the building, according to Bill Mould, a spokesman for the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue.

Former Howard County housing director Leonard S. Vaughan fired back at the Ulman administration this week, contending that an audit critical of the county Housing Commission's accounting practices outlined problems that occurred after he was fired. Vaughan, who headed the commission for 16 years, disputed allegations of "lax administration" made by County Executive Ken Ulman when he released the audit results last week. Vaughan blamed problems on current housing director Stacy L. Spann, whom Ulman appointed a little more than a year ago. Vaughan and his deputy, Neil Gaffney, were fired by Ulman in December 2006.

SOUTHERN HOWARD County's location makes it a natural target for growth. Conveniently situated in the middle of the Baltimore-Washington corridor, the locale is a manageable commute to either of the two major cities.The county's 1990 General Plan unveiled by then-County Executive Elizabeth Bobo assured that the growth would take the form of so-called mixed-use development. A new concept, mixed-use centers were viewed as a way of slowing sprawl by containing new projects in isolated areas.This idea was launched at a time when the county was riding an enormous housing boom, with the Office of Planning and Zoning approving more than 5,300 housing permits the previous year.

Non-profit development corporations have assumed a key role in creating affordable housing for low- and moderate-income home buyers. This was underscored last week when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $2.6 million to seven local non-profit groups for the development of some 300 units of housing.Among the organizations given grants were St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, the Baltimore Corporation for Housing Partnerships, People's Homesteading Corp. and Maryland Housing Research Corp.

An affordable housing fund that was created two years ago to provide homes for the poor and the working class in Baltimore is instead being used to demolish old public housing units before there are firm plans to replace them. The Housing Authority of Baltimore City is using a "significant majority" of the $59 million fund to tear down 15 public housing sites across the city, said Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano.

Joseph T. "Jody" Landers III and Michael A. Sarbanes approach the issue of inclusionary housing from different directions, and they have opposite views on legislation before the Baltimore City Council that would require developers of residential projects in the city to make up to 20 percent of the units affordable. But both agree on one point: In the long run, any inclusionary housing strategy will have to encompass the suburbs. "If you're going to do something like this, you've got to apply it from a regional standpoint," said Landers, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and an opponent of the bill.