Low Income Housing

With a final County Council vote scheduled Monday on rezoning downtown Columbia, advocates for housing affordable to low-wage workers feel their hopes for a last-minute compromise are dead. The Howard County Council briefly discussed their ideas at a nearly five-hour work session Monday night, but it appears ready to adopt a requirement that builders provide at least 15 percent of new units for households with incomes under about $80,000 - too high, the advocates said, to meet the real need.

Steve Carter argued Oct. 11 that low-income housing in Columbia makes little sense ("Low-income housing does not belong in high-cost Columbia," letter). Perhaps Mr. Carter does not realize that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is required to increase affordable housing throughout the Baltimore region, which mirrors the founding goal of Columbia. The case of Thompson vs. HUD filed in January 1995 ended with a partial consent decree. The court determined that HUD violated part of the Fair Housing Act through their failure to affirmatively promote fair housing by not providing affordable housing options in areas of lower poverty.

The developer of a planned affordable-housing community in Glen Burnie will start construction on the project next month, after the Anne Arundel County Council voted to grant the company a key tax break on the project. The council's 4-3 vote on the tax break for New York-based Conifer Realty allows the 36-unit project to move forward, despite complaints from residents who said the development has the potential to bring more crime to the area and decrease property values. Those assertions were voiced by County Councilman John J. Grasso, who represents the Glen Burnie area and has said it already has an abundant stock of low-income housing.

Last week, your papers published a bizarre story about professional low-income affordable housing advocates lobbying the Howard County government to include affordable low-income housing in the future high-end pricey Columbia downtown residential development area ("XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, Sept. 27). Million-dollar luxury condos and expensive apartments and townhouses already exist in this desirable area. Your story offered no clue about how these future low-income residents would be able to afford to do their food stamps-based weekly basic survival food and household items shopping in the high-end Whole Foods luxury supermarket destined for this newly redeveloped Columbia Downtown luxury living community (with no affordable ordinary supermarkets or other basic family services in the nearby Columbia Villages of Wilde Lake and New Town)

Does Harford County need more affordable housing for low-income residents?And if so, how much and where?The Enterprise Foundation -- a non-profit organization created by Harborplace and Columbia developer James W. Rouse to build affordable housing -- hopes to answer those questions.The foundation said Thursday it has agreed to conduct a survey of the county's low-income housing and develop a long-range plan to create new affordable housing in Harford.Enterprise was asked to do the study by the Ecumenical Community of Harford County Inc., which operates a transitional shelter for homeless women and children in Street.

Baltimore's Housing Authority filed a motion Friday to prevent its property from being sold in order to satisfy a $2.6 million judgment in a lead paint exposure case, according to the agency. Last week, representatives from the Baltimore's sheriff's office tagged vehicles used by the Housing Authority in anticipation of seizing them to pay off a jury award. Siblings Antonio Fulgham and Brittany McCutcheon were provided the judgment in 2010, but the agency has resisted making payments while it appeals.

A crowd of Long Reach village residents objected last night to a proposed affordable housing development, expressing concern that the project would adversely affect property values and create a segregated island of low-income housing."

Five years ago, a national task force led by developer James W. Rouse found that housing problems were creating a crisis in )) many parts of the country. The chronic shortage of affordable housing for lower-income people was causing a marked increase in homelessness and driving up rents and home prices, leading to conditions in some neighborhoods that could accurately be described as "domestic terrorism."That report, "A Decent Place to Live," became the blueprint for the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 -- the first major, stand-alone federal housing legislation in more than a decade.

A coalition of three Howard County groups is trying to revive public discussion of a once touchy but now rarely mentioned topic -- low-income housing. "There is this lower [income] category we don't talk about," said Sherman Howell, who this week raised the issue to three Howard County council members -- two of whom are running for county executive this year. With home prices in Howard up more than 77 percent in four years, public discussion has shifted from low-income housing to units for people in the $34,000 to $90,000 income range.

Nichole Griffin says she would like to move into a neighborhood such as Columbia's Long Reach village, but some residents in that community don't want low-income neighbors like her."I can come to your house and baby-sit your child, but I can't come live beside you," Ms. Griffin told a group of about 60 people at a forum on affordable housing yesterday.The forum, sponsored by Coldwell Banker Grempler's Grempler Real Estate Assistance Team, was the fourth annual gathering of public and private advocates for affordable housing.

Baltimore's Housing Authority filed a motion Friday to prevent its property from being sold in order to satisfy a $2.6 million judgment in a lead paint exposure case, according to the agency. Last week, representatives from the Baltimore's sheriff's office tagged vehicles used by the Housing Authority in anticipation of seizing them to pay off a jury award. Siblings Antonio Fulgham and Brittany McCutcheon were provided the judgment in 2010, but the agency has resisted making payments while it appeals.

The developer of a planned affordable-housing community in Glen Burnie will start construction on the project next month, after the Anne Arundel County Council voted to grant the company a key tax break on the project. The council's 4-3 vote on the tax break for New York-based Conifer Realty allows the 36-unit project to move forward, despite complaints from residents who said the development has the potential to bring more crime to the area and decrease property values. Those assertions were voiced by County Councilman John J. Grasso, who represents the Glen Burnie area and has said it already has an abundant stock of low-income housing.

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....

This month, the Baltimore office of Ballard Spahr LLP closed a $460 million real estate deal — the largest U.S. sale of multifamily dwellings outside New York in the past three years, according to commercial real estate industry players. The deal was a coup for the office, which represented the buyer of eight apartment complexes in Maryland and Northern Virginia that contain more than 2,500 units. Marci Gordon, the partner who led Ballard Spahr's team of lawyers during the seven-month negotiation, said the acquisition of the apartment buildings, known as the Magazine Portfolio, by a joint venture of Pantzer Properties and Dune Real Estate Partners showed the strength of rental properties, which have benefited from the continuing slump in the for-sale housing market.

The article "Recession takes toll on low income renters" (Feb. 4) sheds light on the dwindling supply of affordable apartments at a time when they are needed most. The Low Income Housing Tax Credit is the largest creator of affordable rental housing in the United States and is funded through private investment. It is one of the most successful government programs in modern history. Yet, it is at risk of being eliminated with potential upcoming tax reform. Since its creation in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, nine out of 10 affordable apartments have been developed through the tax credit program, a total of more than 2 million units nationwide.

With a final County Council vote scheduled Monday on rezoning downtown Columbia, advocates for housing affordable to low-wage workers feel their hopes for a last-minute compromise are dead. The Howard County Council briefly discussed their ideas at a nearly five-hour work session Monday night, but it appears ready to adopt a requirement that builders provide at least 15 percent of new units for households with incomes under about $80,000 - too high, the advocates said, to meet the real need.

Gains were made in 1990, but much work remains for those confrontingcounty housing issues, said members of a panel that met Wednesday tooffer assessments of the housing situation in Carroll.The eight panelists -- a cross-section of housing officials ranging from homeless advocates to builders to government housing administrators -- agreed that the past year was bittersweet for housing in the county.Some encouraging steps were taken in Carroll during 1990, such asthe creation of a county housing bureau, and the expansion of a legal-aid bureau that assists low-income housing tenants in disputes withlandlords.

The federal government has ended its 1994 review of the Baltimore Housing Authority's scandal-ridden, $25.6 million, no-bid repair program for low-income housing.The housing authority returned $343,400 to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to resolve accusations that the authority paid twice the going rate to fix apartments for the poor, paid contractors for work that was not done and paid millions to companies run by friends and relatives of authority directors.The HUD audit led to an FBI investigation.

With a final Howard County Council vote scheduled Monday on rezoning downtown Columbia for three decades of urban-style redevelopment, advocates for housing affordable to low-wage workers feel their hopes for a last-minute compromise are in peril. The council met again Friday to discuss various last-minute options for providing at least some housing for lower income people. The council briefly discussed their ideas at a nearly five-hour work session Monday night, but members appear ready to adopt a requirement that builders provide at least 15 percent of new units for households with incomes under about $80,000 -- too high, the advocates said, to meet the real need.