Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is expected to announce tonight his intention to more than double the county’s housing fund to combat the jurisdiction’s affordable housing woes.
Leggett is expected to tell a crowd of more than 500 Action in Montgomery members, aninterfaith activist group, that his plans to solve the county’s affordable-housing crisis are in line with theirs, but he can’t guarantee the timing of his intentions.
He also is expected to commit to creating an affordable housing chief position and replace all affordable-housing lost when developers converted property used for that purpose to other pursuits, such as luxury town houses — moves that AIM members had been pushing.
Leggett told The Examiner Wednesday that the county is in a “very difficult challenge period” for affordable housing. The median price of a Montgomery County home last month was $510,000, according to data from the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors.
“Large segments of our population — fire personnel, teachers, police and government employees — are having to travel great distances to get to work,” Leggett said. “We need to be certain we can provide for our work base.”
Action in Montgomery official Alisa Glassman said group members believe the county’s housing market is “completely unhinged from the reality of the average family.”
AIM leaders say today’s meeting with Leggett and some County Council members was planned to demand county leaders create a housing market that will work for the average family.
“We do this from time to time in order to have a public witness and call on public officials,” said Rev. Jeff MacKnight of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda.
Leggett says he is fulfilling promises he made during his campaign.
“These are things I’ve indicated in the past that I’ve wanted to do,” Leggett said. “There are no disagreements with the objectives; the question is how soon can we get there.”
For example, AIM activists want Leggett to pledge to raise the housing initiative fund from its current level of about $30 million to $80 million by fiscal year 2010. Leggett says he thinks he can get the fund up to $75 million “within the next three or four years.”
More than a quarter of designated affordable-housing units in Montgomery County are unaffordable to the people who the specialized units are supposed to serve, according to a county Legislative Oversight report released in July.
MacKnight said the lack of affordable housing is “breaking up generations and families.”
“People who have housing for themselves are realizing that senior adults, their parents or grandparents that they want nearby, are having a tough time finding a place they can afford,” MacKnight said. “Or the reverse: there’s lots of adult children who can’t stay in the county after finishing college or educational pursuits so they have to leave.”
