County Condemns, But Then Rebuilds

Unusual Program Offers a Mortgage to the Displaced

"Ithought that if I could keep a roof over my head and pay my taxes, they wouldn't evict me," said Gloria Brantley, an 81-year-old Bethesda retiree on a fixed income.

It didn't work out that way. In April 2004, Montgomery County evicted Brantley from her house, on MacArthur Boulevard. Her tax payments weren't the problem. County inspectors found that her house had no heat, was structurally unsound and was unsafe to live in. They gave Brantley and her daughter and son-in-law, both disabled, 24 hours to get out.

What the county can condemn it can also replace. Every year, Montgomery's Department of Housing and Community Affairs rebuilds a handful of houses for low-income residents whose homes have fallen into unlivable disrepair. County officials say they know of no programs like it in the Washington region.

Last month, county officials presented keys to Brantley and her son-in-law Steve Lulie for her new home, a four-bedroom with two dormer windows on the second floor and a spacious kitchen. The brand-new electric range showed the time of day. "They even got the clock set for me," Brantley said.

The program isn't free for its beneficiaries. The county provides a mortgage for the cost of construction -- and sometimes interim living expenses -- which homeowners pay off after they move in. If they sell the property, the county recoups its investment immediately. Either way, the payments are used to fund future replacements. "The money is protected," said Joe Giloley, chief of the county's Division of Housing and Code Enforcement.

The program was started decades ago, after county officials realized that they couldn't use federal housing rehabilitation money to rebuild properties from scratch. So Montgomery began using its own money for several replacements each year. "Most of them, years ago, were in rural areas. Now you find them occasionally in urban areas," said Fred Wilcox, the department's financial manager.

Usually about $2 million to $3 million is tied up in the program. "It's a lot of money per customer, but there really is no alternative," Giloley said. In cases in which homeowners have little money and no family, he said, a condemnation can render them homeless.

Most recipients are elderly people on fixed incomes and people who have recently inherited a home in poor condition. To qualify for the program, homeowners must earn 80 percent or less of the Washington region's median income, about $89,000 for a family of four. Homeowners also must own properties outright and be able to pay off the mortgages, which have interest rates of 1 to 4 percent.

Replacement houses usually occupy an area measuring 30 feet by 40 feet. Homeowners work out the design with Samson Awojoodu, an architect who is the county's senior planner. "We don't get into wants; we only satisfy needs," he said.

The county takes care of the contracting and oversees the construction. At present, one project is in construction, and four are in the planning stages, Awojoodu said.

The county lent Brantley about $240,000, which she will pay off at a rate of $400 a month. The mortgage covers construction costs and the expense of renting an apartment for the two years the family was displaced. The property, with its new house, has been appraised at $756,000, Awojoodu said.

Most of the run-down properties are brought to the attention of code enforcement officials by neighbors. In Brantley's case, county inspectors visited the property in 2003 after a complaint and ordered improvements. The inspectors returned in 2004 after a nonprofit group proposed building a small addition to the house. This time they determined that it was beyond repair.

"The house was absolutely trashed -- totally falling apart," Giloley said.

Brantley, who retired 21 years ago from the research department of the National Education Association, said she and her family had been unable to keep up the house in part because of her rising property taxes. Her tax bill was $3,400 a year before the eviction, she said; the house cost her $25,000 in 1954.

In cases in which homeowners cannot afford the taxes on their new homes, the county can fold some tax obligations into the mortgage, Giloley said.

While her son-in-law took measurements of the windows in preparation for moving in, Brantley sat on the stairs. The floors, covered in blue-gray carpeting, and the cream-colored walls were pristine. The centrally cooled air had the paint-and-glue aroma of new construction.

"It's beautiful," she said.