Candidates Confront Housing Issue

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 3, 2006

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.

As a measure of that concern, all five county executive candidates -- Leggett, Silverman, Democrat Robert Raymond Fustero, Republican Chuck Floyd and independent Robin Ficker -- shared a stage at a rally Thursday night organized by Action in Montgomery, an interfaith coalition of congregations. Standing before a crowd of more than 500, all but Floyd agreed to try to achieve the coalition's goal of requiring that 25 percent of units in all new developments and condo conversions be priced affordably. Floyd said he would examine the county's existing programs to come up with a more "holistic" approach.

In an interview, Silverman said the county should consider letting developers build taller buildings to provide more affordable homes. He also said he wants to identify public land suitable for housing and work with the private and nonprofit sectors to build affordable units. He has promised to end homelessness in the county over the next four years, partly through rental subsidies. But the key to his plan is more moderately priced units and the workforce housing program, which he sponsored.

Leggett cautioned against allowing taller buildings, arguing that it would reward developers. Silverman responded that he is only looking to add one or two floors. "No one is talking about making it like Manhattan or Rosslyn," he said.

Leggett characterized as inadequate Silverman's workforce housing program, which is expected to yield 2,500 affordable units over 20 to 30 years, and the moderately priced housing program, which produced 400 units last year.

Instead, Leggett proposes increasing the percentage of moderately priced units to between 20 and 25 percent on any county-owned land and raising it on private property as well, although he would not specify how much. He also wants to decrease the number of condominium conversions and quadruple the county's Housing Initiative Fund, a pot of money used for affordable housing programs. It now sits at $20 million.

Silverman has challenged Leggett to explain how he would increase the fund, but Leggett has been vague. Silverman also has attacked Leggett's plan for clusters of middle-class housing, saying it would create economically segregated communities -- an assertion Leggett has rejected. "I just think that's a bad idea," Silverman said. "That's not the policy of economic integration that we have had."

On Friday, Silverman sent out a news release accusing Leggett of making "a completely inaccurate claim" when he said on a NewsChannel 8 debate Thursday that he "initiated and started" the Housing Initiative Fund -- a statement he has made at other events. Reached Friday, former council member Bruce Adams, who has endorsed Leggett, confirmed that he and then-council member William E. Hanna Jr., not Leggett, co-sponsored that bill in 1988. But he said Leggett was a strong supporter.

"You can't get legislation passed with just two sponsors, and Ike was always there, and we could always count on him," he said.

Leggett said a council member does not have to sponsor a bill to lead an effort. "I stand by that. I never wanted credit for that. There's a whole bunch of things I didn't take credit for."

Some housing advocates said they worry that the poorest residents will be forgotten. All the candidates have pledged to support that population, but James, the single mother living in the Rockville shelter, said she is not convinced.

"They can say anything to get elected," she said.