Candidates Confront Housing Issue

Unlike most other voters, Natasha James, 23, is not all that interested in how the candidates for Montgomery county executive plan to manage growth or ease traffic.

James -- a lifelong Montgomery resident, single mother and undecided voter -- has a different concern: The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the county is $1,225, requiring an annual income of $49,000, according to county estimates. James will soon start a part-time job conducting telephone surveys. She'll make $8,320 a year.

James cannot afford the luxury homes that have sprouted in the nation's sixth most affluent county. "They're only building these places for rich people," she said after a recent candidates' forum. James lives in a women's shelter in Rockville.

As the Sept. 12 primary approaches, the shortage of affordable housing has become a potent political topic. In debates over the past few weeks, the two leading Democratic candidates -- former County Council member Isiah "Ike" Leggett and council member Steven A. Silverman (At Large) -- have articulated different approaches to addressing what they call a crisis in housing, not just for the poor but also for middle-class families.

Silverman wants to force builders to set aside homes at below-market prices and create mixed-income communities. Letting developers build taller buildings would make room for those units, he said. On Friday, he criticized Leggett for claiming credit for a housing initiative sponsored by other council members. Leggett acknowledged he was not a sponsor but said he led the effort for it.

Leggett, despite a platform of slowing growth, has offered to relax zoning laws in some areas to allow for more affordable housing. He proposes building clusters of 25 to 50 units priced at $300,000 to $350,000 for middle-class families.

The two candidates are addressing a problem exacerbated in recent years by a healthy economy that has bumped up housing prices and sparked the conversion of rental apartments to condos.

Despite Montgomery's affluence, nearly 50,000 of its 931,000 residents live below the federal poverty level, and the number keeps growing, county officials said. In the past year, the number of those who are homeless or living in shelters or transitional housing increased 9 percent to 1,164. Perhaps no piece of data is more telling than this: When the county's Housing Opportunities Commission opened its waiting list for housing choice vouchers, or rental subsidies, last month, almost 20,000 people signed up in five days, nearly four times as many as than the program can accommodate.

"I think more and more people are being squeezed out of housing," said Sharan London, executive director of the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless. "You have folks who are working who can't afford housing."

Under the county's Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit Program, considered a national model when it was created in the 1970s, developers building large projects have to offer 12.5 percent of the units at below-market prices. A family that wants to rent or buy such a unit can earn as much as 65 to 70 percent of the Washington metropolitan area's median household income of $90,300, according to figures provided by the county.

But the affordable housing shortage is now affecting the middle class, including households earning $100,000 and more. Recognizing that, the council in July approved the workforce housing program, requiring that 10 percent of homes being built in developments around Metro stations be priced low enough for families who earn up to 120 percent of the median income.

The program would benefit county employees such as Shawn Joseph, principal of Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. Joseph moved his family from Montgomery to Hagerstown, Md. "We decided that it wasn't worth living and working in Montgomery County if it meant not being able to have money for anything else," he said.