A group of Wheaton homeowners is having a special meeting this weekend to voice concerns to Montgomery County officials about the growing number of overcrowded houses in their neighborhood and a lack of action from the county.
Kim Persaud, vice president of the Wheaton Regional Park Neighborhood Association, said several small single-family homes were being run like boarding houses for immigrants and housing as many as 14 people, she said.
The result is too many cars that block traffic and too much trash that attracts rats and raccoons, Persaud said. Compounding the problem is a county government that is incapable of enforcing zoning laws that are already on the books.
“It’s utter frustration,” Persaud said. “They need to take their head out of the sand and do something about it.”
The number of overcrowding complaints in Montgomery County has more than doubled in the past six years, though county officials have found almost all of those complaints unfounded. That’s partly because adults living in overcrowded homes can easily skirt county zoning rules that prohibit more than five unrelated people living in a single house by saying they are all related.
Persaud said that was a loophole the county needed to fix. But finding a solution has vexed county leaders.
County Executive Ike Leggett has proposed changes to the county’s zoning laws, though none of them directly addresses the issue of overcrowding, according to County Council staff, which recommended that the county double the minimum number of square footage necessary per adult in each house.
That proposal was met with a cold reception from County Council members, who said they weren’t convinced the problem of overcrowding was as extensive as it has been portrayed.
Council members also expressed concern that sweeping changes to zoning laws may unfairly target the growing number of larger-sized immigrant families moving to the county.
Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring, said she was “100 percent” behind closing down illegal boarding homes in the county, but worried that there was a “racial undertone” to some of the conversations going on in the county about overcrowding.
Ervin said her previous three-bedroom, one-bathroom post-World War II-era house was home to family of seven soon after it was built.
“I’m wondering if people would consider that too crowded by today’s standards,” Ervin said.
Persaud said her association, which has about 300 members, didn’t have a problem with large families, but rather large groups of unrelated adults crammed into a small house.
“Obviously, they are not hearing us,” Persaud said.
