Subscribe free to our daily email newsletterEditorial Opinion by Cindy Cotte Griffiths: Affordable Housing As A Priority
Jan 8, 2010 16:14 - 11 Comments
Posted by: Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Department: Editorial Opinion,Opinion
Tags: by Cindy Cotte Griffiths, Opinion
Department: Editorial Opinion,Opinion
Tags: by Cindy Cotte Griffiths, Opinion
During the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, the >Mayor and Council will attend their biannual retreat and set their priorities for the next two years.
As many of you know, I chair the Human Services Advisory Commission and we have sent the following letter to the Mayor and Council:
We, the Human Service Advisory Commission (HSAC), are writing to you in support of affordable housing in our community. Whenever HSAC studies needs assessments, the lack of affordable housing in the City is evident. In addition, the recent economic slowdown and loss of investments has left many seniors in Rockville living on much less than they expected while trying to maintain their homes and pay taxes. We strongly encourage you to include affordable housing in your Vision Statement.
We support affordable housing in our community such as Beall’s Grant II and Victory Court. We urge you to sign a Letter of Support for tax credits for Beall’s Grant II. Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) has worked very hard over many months to compromise on the design of the building. With the new design 35 fewer apartments will be built and less people will be served. Since the new design has been submitted to the Planning Commission, we wholeheartedly support this project going forward without any additional demands being placed on MHP. Because of the tremendous need for affordable senior housing, we also support the plan to build Victory Court on the Montgomery County land at Fleet and Monroe Streets. Victory Housing reports that most of their market comes from a three-mile radius of each community built because seniors don’t want to move away from family, friends, and doctors, so this would be an affordable community for Rockville residents. We don’t want to lose their contributions to the civic life of our community and Victory Court will provide a much-needed alternative for seniors who can’t afford to remain in our City. We were particularly supportive of Victory Housing’s endeavor to keep the rents below $1,000 per month which will serve our seniors well. Additional requirements made on this development will unnecessarily increase the rents. The community’s proximity to stores, city services, and transportation makes it even more attractive as a location.
With this letter we are asking for your leadership in creating these and other affordable housing options for our City.
Since 1980 Community Ministries of Rockville has surveyed candidates on human service concerns. Last year was no exception and one of the questions concerned affordable housing:
Affordable housing is a top priority because it is good for business, it attracts younger people to an aging community, and it improves the quality of life for everyone. What do you propose be done during the next term to increase affordable housing in Rockville?
Here are the responses from those who were elected:
Phyllis Marcuccio: I served on the Rockville Housing Authority for ten years. Affordable housing is important to me, as is the ability of homeowners to remain in their affordable homes of the past. The Legacy project in Lincoln Park is a good example of partnering with developers and the city to provide moderate homes to moderate income buyers. We need to watch for buildings in the city that might be converted into affordable housing for the elderly as well.
John Britton: I agree that affordable housing not only benefits those who are able to live is an affordable house or apartment, but also greatly benefits the community at large, in part because it complements the richness of residential diversity – and I reference diversity in terms of socio-economic levels, race and age. It also benefits employers who are able to find a nearby pool of employees who do not have to travel great distances to get to their jobs. Although the city has the laudable goal of increasing affordable (and senior) housing, we sometimes find ourselves in contentious situations in trying to implement this goal. I think it prudent at this time to have a community-wide discussion about affordable housing – how do we define it, who are the target residents, where should it be located. This will help us more precisely set a community framework within which we can attempt to satisfy our goal of increasing affordable housing. Along with this, the city needs to be more proactive (recent proposals illustrate the pitfalls of being exclusively reactive) in identifying appropriate and attractive sites for affordable housing.
Mark Pierzchala: I agree with your description of the positive attributes of ‘affordable housing’. However, we see neighborhood reactions against affordable housing in part because it is misunderstood. Rockville elected officials need to emphatically educate the public that affordable housing is for law-abiding people who work. Additionally, we need to make sure that the size of these projects fit some sort of human scale. Mid-size projects work for me, but they have to be near enough to (not necessarily on top of) good transit.
Piotr Gajewski: Rockville is very fortunate that there are non-profit organizations in our community whose mission it is to provide affordable housing. The most important thing that the City must do to promote affordable housing is to not get in the way of those nonprofits. The saddest result of my term on the council was the holding up, by the Mayor and Council, of the building of more affordable housing.
Bridget Newton: I support affordable housing and have been working with the WECA committee on Beall’s Grant to bring a quality project that balances the needs of the immediate neighborhood with those of MHP. Additionally, we need to provide work-force housing for those who hold positions such as teacher/firefighter/police and do not earn enough to live in the community in which they work. I will continue my efforts to see that the development projects and services coming to Rockville are balanced with the concerns of the community they are joining.
As they meet, I hope the mayor and council will begin the discussion about affordable housing as John Britton has suggested, and become more proactive in developing this much-needed asset to our City. However it is developed, whether through the conversion of older buildings or new construction, we need leaders who will put great effort into turning their support for affordable housing into a reality. Leaders who, as Mark Pierzchala states, “emphatically educate the public that affordable housing is for law-abiding people who work” and spread the truth. I do hope the vision for Rockville during the next two years will include strong advocacy for affordable housing. Our officials need to lead the effort and lend their support to make it happen, even if compromises are required.
I don’t believe that politicians should be able to issue vapid statements that they “support” certain things if they have not actually demonstrated that they do, in fact, have a record of doing so. For someone to claim that they support something, but then they cannot point to a concrete example of having actually done so, and furthermore they have a record that is rife with obstruction to the concept that they claim to support, then it is hypocritical at best to make such a claim.
I agree totally with Temperance’s comments. Some of our elected officials are engaging in what I call the “Truth -Con”– that is making a statement that is deemed the politically correct one such as “I am for affordable housing.” Having said the “right” thing, they then proceed to do everything in their power to undermine it from happening with negative votes, signs, petitions and political “doublespeak.” We are all sick of this behavior! It is time for the Mayor and Council to put their vote behind their verbal committment and put aside the “Truth-Con!”
How does a democracy deal with reality when you can easily get more votes by playing to the fears and prejudices that exist. There are a number of candidates that feel they were defeated in the past election because they tried to deal with misinformation in a constructive fashion. Rockville, as the rest of the country, is facing difficult economic times. Half the houses in Rockville just had their assessments reduced 21%. Foreclosures are a daily occurrence.In the fifty years I have lived in Rockville I don’t recall a time when things were worse off economically. The need for affordable housing is now greater than ever but speaking the truth may have a penalty when it means facing a fearful constituency . Times are demanding real leadership from the Mayor and Council. My wish for the New Year is that they will find the courage to provide the leadership we need to deal with the problems we face.
We should focus on the needs of the community and not the rhetoric of criticizing politicians. Some of them in the past have not agreed with our point of views and that is inevitable. Regardless, they must make decisions on the basis of the information provided and should have substantial justification for their decisions.Affordable housing issue has affected my family. My siblings and I are very frustrated with the problems our parents have living so far away. Our parents moved to Florida because it was too costly for them to remain in Montgomery County depending on their social security checks to live on. Now we have constant issues requiring one of the family members to solve the problems long-distance, sometimes requiring one of us to travel to Florida. My brother drove 22 hours from Chicago to Sarasota and is taking his turn helping our mother. He is there this week.Here are my answers to some questions raised on this blog of affordable housing. 1) How do we define the need? It is obvious that we need affordable housing, very few disagree. 2) Who are the target residents? The residents in need are the many that don’t have high salaries and have no way to increase their income, which includes many older seniors. I certainly can’t afford a $1,800 monthly rent bill. 3) Where should it be located? Locate the facilities where property is available and an organization is willing to pay to build it. Our government certainly doesn’t have enough money to provide the housing needs of all.There are more than enough Federal, County and City codes (guidelines, regulations) that are required to be followed when dealing with any scale of development. We also have a good process in the City of Rockville that allows comments from the public. Few people do take time to voice their concerns, and present reasonable suggestions in most cases. There will be differing views of course, but in the end the process does work even if some improvement is needed. Compromises are necessary and I have seen the process work in our fair City of Rockville. Let’s be positive and work together.The way the elected officials balance the concerns of the community is not always the way we agree. The fact is that the final decision regardless of all the community arguments, the City of Rockville Mayor and Council has the authority to approve or disapprove a project. I only hope they make the right decision, are provided all accurate information, weigh all the pros and cons, and allow affordable housing projects to be approved. This statement also applies to the Rockville Planning Commission. Compelling reasons are a must when voting on developmental projects.
Thanks to Cindy for her editorial opinion and for soliciting responses from the Mayor and Council. The comments from residents are thoughtful, with Brigitta putting a human face on the issue. I have attended the county’s Affordable Housing Conference (usually held in April) on several occasions and feel that many statements are made, many pats on the back are given, but little of substance comes from it. I think continued dialog with each other and with our elected officials may be more fruitful.
I was sad but not surprised to read that, according to the Gazette, affordable housing does not appear to be anywhere on the mayor and council’s list of priority issues for the future.
“I was sad but not surprised to read that, according to the Gazette…”yes, the Gazette. That treasured bundle of fact-checking and overpriced advertising I use to start my woodstove. How they don’t get cited for littering amazes me. Between craigslist and good little local online sites like this one, its a constant shock that the Gazette is still here in 2010.
In all fairness to the Gazette, this week Brad linked to two of their articles on the Mayor and Council for (1.) visions and (2.) the Twinbrook meeting. Nate Carrick is doing an excellent job, well beyond anything on Rockville Central. The Gazette still is the only real source of comprehensive local coverage for Rockville.
i agree completely with cindy. the gazette is indispensible. we just try to do our best to add what we can. nathan in particular does a great job.
Is inaction on the part of the Mayor and Council somehow the Gazette’s fault?
This thread, responding to Cindy’s affordable housing advocacy article, went a bit off track and dormant after nearly a month. Too bad, because there is a principle that needs to be aired, which I think was pretty well captured in the view that “development projects and services coming to Rockville [should be] balanced with the concerns of the community they are joining.” I agree completely, and I think some balancing is in order, given that our social, political, and economic systems are so heavily weighted in favor of the “haves.”