Montgomery County should build entire neighborhoods with houses reserved for middle-class families priced out of the current real estate market rate, Isiah Leggett, a likely candidate for county executive, said yesterday.
His probable opponent in the Democratic primary, County Council member Steven A. Silverman (At Large), made a more modest suggestion. He proposed that the county tackle the problem by requiring that more lower-priced homes, or "workforce housing," be offered in some new developments.
Affordable housing, particularly the needs of middle-class families, is expected to be a central issue of the 2006 race for county executive, and both Leggett and Silverman sought the upper hand during the Affordable Housing Conference, a day-long summit on the problem.
Leggett said he envisions the county working with private developers to construct thousands of houses and condominium units for residents who can't afford the county's median single-family home price of $392,000 but who make too much to qualify for subsidized housing.
"We have to go in and prepare and build a substantial number of workforce housing units," Leggett, a former council member and a former state party chairman, said in an interview. He added that he envisions the homes being made available to households with an income of about $75,000 to $80,000.
Silverman said he plans to introduce a bill in the council this month to require that 10 percent of all homes in some new developments -- including those planned near the Shady Grove Metro station -- be set aside for families with incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 a year. That housing would come on top of the current requirement that developers set aside 12 percent of new units for families that make up to 70 percent of the area's median income -- $56,000 for a family of four.
"We should be looking at incorporating workforce housing throughout Montgomery County, like we do with our affordable housing program," Silverman said.
Under both approaches, developers could pay less tax and build more housing in exchange for providing units at less than market rates. Leggett and Silverman assume the houses could be sold for $250,000 to $350,000.
Neither man could say yesterday how much his proposal would cost taxpayers. Leggett also couldn't say where he would find the land to build thousands of homes, but he ruled out the county's expansive agricultural preserve in the northern part of the county.
The different approaches would offer voters a choice in next year's primary election. Silverman wants to stick to the county's decades-old tradition of economically integrated housing. Leggett's proposal, reminiscent of government attempts to build houses for returning soldiers after World War II, could lead to new communities where everyone has roughly the same household income.
"It's not different than communities in Pennsylvania or West Virginia," Leggett said, referring to the many middle-income families that have moved to those states in search of affordable housing.
Silverman said Leggett's proposal would generate intense community opposition from residents not eager to live near new developments of less-than-market-rate housing.
"To propose that workforce housing can only go into certain areas of the county will ensure the program will never get off the ground," Silverman said. "It's not economic integration; it's economic segregation."
Leggett said Silverman's set-aside solution wouldn't begin to meet the county's affordable housing needs.
"You can't get there by adding to existing programs or setting aside 10 to 15 percent," Leggett said. He said Silverman's plan would amount to "nibbling around the edges."
The debate comes as fewer and fewer people can afford to live in Montgomery, including many of those who provide key services.
About three-quarters of Montgomery firefighters and 25 percent of county police officers and teachers live outside the county, many because they cannot afford to buy a house in Montgomery, county officials say.
