The relocation of jobs to Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County is expected to create more service industry jobs ? further exacerbating the dearth of affordable housing in Howard.
“Anticipated service jobs that will be created as a result of [the military?s Base Realignment and Closure measure] are likely to cause the housing gap to grow,” according to a report by the Howard County Task Force on Affordable Housing.
About 5,300 jobs are expected to come to Fort Meade by 2011, and anywhere between 35,000 and 120,000 jobs could come to the region, said Kent Menser, executive director of the county?s BRAC office.
These jobs could be military contractors, as well as support jobs, such as those at restaurants and department stores, said Roy Appletree, a member of the housing task force.
“It?s going to make it less affordable, because there will be more pressure for housing,” he said.
About 70 percent of jobs in Howard pay less than $50,000, and the number could grow by another 24,300 positions in the next 10 years, according to the housing report.
The average wage for relocating personnel at Fort Meade is about $85,000, which will drive up housing prices, Appletree said.
“It will exacerbate it for a lot of low- and moderate-income workers that are needed to serve BRAC,” he said.
Many affordable housing advocates are concerned that the need will be forgotten as the region focuses on BRAC, said Sherman Howell, a member of the task force and the African American Coalition of Howard County.
Some jobs might bring in as much as $250,000 a year, and developers will be pleased that residents can afford million-dollar houses, he said.
