Aspen Hill, along with parts of Germantown and Montgomery Village, leads the foreclosure rate for Montgomery County, according to an article in the Gazette ("Foreclosed homes are being eyed as low-income housing, County acquires $2M, seeks millions more to convert vacant houses into affordable rentals", Beasley, Jen, Montgomery Gazette, Jan 14 2009).
The federal "Neighborhood Stabilization Program" has allocated some $2-millions to Montgomery County and the county now proposes to purchase foreclosed homes to rent out to people who make less than 50-percent of the median income in the area.
Noted in passing, during my recent campaign for the Special Elections, County Council District 4, I proposed that the County should try to assume the role of guarantor for loans so that public service employees -- such as teachers, firefighters, and police officers -- could both live where they worked, and also put people into empty properties which otherwise might fall into disrepair. Well, I lost that election, and furthermore was later informed that the vast majority of police officers that work in Aspen Hill would in no way at all want to live here. They'd rather commute from their homes outside of the county, where crime and pollution are far lower, and the public amenities such as schools are quite comparable, all with a much lower cost of living.
Yet there are those who would in fact love to live here, especially at subsidized rental rates in a house.
But first let's do the math. If the market price of a "regular house" in Aspen Hill is about $325,000 -- down from the peak value of around $450,000 in early to mid-2007 -- a $2-millions grant from the federal government would buy about seven houses, "as is", or six houses "as is" and leaving a bit left over for any necessary repairs and renovations. Considering how strapped the County and State are feeling due to massive revenue shortfalls due to the economic decline and housing-bubble collapse, it's not certain how much more could be contributed to the project from State or County coffers.
Rick Nelson, the director of the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs, is reported as suggesting that as much as $7-millions might be forthcoming from the State and $3.5-millions from the County, which together with the $2-millions would come close to $13-millions. That might amount to 40 to 50 homes. Yet that's the high end of possibilities, and indeed there might be only the $2-millions of Federal grant allocations.
Aspen Hill is already a sort of "ground zero" for rental properties. Probably the majority of rentals here are illegal. You may see a map of all of the properties in the bounds of the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc. which have non-primary residence of owner as listed by the Maryland tax assessment office. It's a very large and cluttered map. "South Aspen Hill" is replete with such properties.
It you look at the maps of the non-primary residence of owner, also with permits or in permitting process, the map looks about the same. However, these are people who actually went through the process of applying for a permit. A significant percentage of these properties also have Code Violation histories.
From the Gazette:
I'm not encouraged, and I wouldn't encourage it," said Alexandra Minckler, president of the Aspen Hill Civic Association. "I do feel strongly that [a] program toward home ownership would be a better fit for our neighborhood." She said homeowners tend to take better care of their property because they have "a vested interest" in doing so, and long-term residents are better able to "grow a sense of community."
Ms Minckler, it should be noted, is a professional Realtor, and it does behoove her to promote home-ownership both for the reasons she mentions and because she and her colleagues in Realty get a bigger commission when home prices are higher, and usually the more "stable" and "settled" a neighborhood is, the higher the prices the seller may ask.
This isn't, however, the first time that the Aspen Hill Civic Association, Inc. -- along with other groups far less easy to identify -- have opposed County-subsidized housing in Aspen Hill.
Ms Minckler is right about one thing: rental properties have become quite the bone of contention in Aspen Hill -- and in many other parts of Montgomery County as well -- because they quite frequently don't keep up the properties to the standards of the community, or up to the standards of County Code, for that matter.
In Aspen Hill, many of the "rental properties" aren't classified as such nor licensed as such. Many are illegal rentals with the basements subdivided to let out to as many as four families per basement. Many home fires in the neighborhood in recent years were in buildings determined after the blaze to have been very overcrowded, often with a dozen or more people living in a home intended for no more than two adults and perhaps three or four children.
There is another history here in Aspen Hill, though, which has to do with County subsidies of group homes for the formerly homeless, and for disabled mental healthcare patients.
More later!
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