County Backs Plan to Solve Two Housing Problems

Loans to Employees To Ease Market Glut

The Board of County Supervisors endorsed an innovative program Tuesday to make low-interest loans available to Prince William County employees to encourage them to buy houses locally.

A task force, created in the fall to find ways to reduce the glut of houses on the market, will survey the county's 3,500 employees to see how many are interested in the proposal. It also will work with banks on financing details.

About 40 percent of county employees live outside Prince William. The loan program will target public safety employees who make about $44,000 annually.

As proposed, the county government would invest about $25 million in pass-through certificates of deposit at a bank. The proceeds would be used to offer mortgages to county employees. If implemented, Prince William officials would use the plan to help recruit and retain workers.

"This is still a very conceptual stage of the program," County Executive Craig S. Gerhart said. "Whatever we do has to recognize we don't have money to spend directly or staff to get involved in the active management of properties in the county."

Supervisors encouraged county staff members to keep working on the proposal and develop more details.

The large pool of low-income, first-time buyers who became homeowners in the county during the boom years and defaulted on their loans contributed to the nearly 7,000 houses in various stages of foreclosure in Prince William, Finance Director Christopher E. Martino said.

Employees eligible for the loan program could buy those houses or others on the market.

"We are not kidding ourselves that we are going to fix the [housing] problem overnight," Martino said. By buying houses, employees will be "investing in the county and the quality of life."

The task force came up with the "Home Help" program because the county has no money to spend on housing incentives and cannot offer real estate loans.

Supervisors called the approach innovative.

"I'm impressed with the amount of creativity that went into this," Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles) said.

"I'm very much in favor of this," Supervisor Maureen S. Caddigan (R-Dumfries) said. "When you see the number of boarded up houses and high grass and what it does to communities . . . a lot of them have been left a mess."

Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said the program would be implemented at "no cost to the county or taxpayers and no risk to the county."

"This is a brilliant approach," he said. "We have a lot to work on."