Well this doesn't really seem like a campaign issue or commentary, but I am wondering what the community here thinks about the future prospects. I'll give you the historic contours and even my ambivalent (in the truest sense of the word) feelings and then, I'm hoping, you can all have at it and even me, if need be. I've got a pretty thick skin and I'm really trying to process my own feelings on this, so the viewpoints of others would come in handy, right about now. If you remain curious, the promised details are below the orange spirograph...
I live in a nice neighborhood. My rather expensive townhouse backs up to a protected stream that (eventually) feeds into the Chesapeake, beyond that an expansive municipal park. My child in enrolled in the best school system in the country and his elementary school has a >95% success rate for math and reading proficiency. We live far enough from the beltway that we can't hear it, but close enough to jump on within a three minute ride. The DC METRO and a revitalized town center are less than a mile away and includes a newly built library, district court and the county government.
Across the road is a complex of rent to own low rise (3-story) apartments, big enough to warrant it's own bus route, which our small town home community shares. It's been owned by a holding company somewhere in Illinois and is populated by service workers, NIH postdoctoral fellows, community college students, immigrants (which overlap with all categories) and the working poor that care about good schools. The apartments are old, think 1970s and don't have enough parking for modern times, so there's lots of street parking.
Apparently, the complex was put up for sale in April and the City's Housing Enterprise, County’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs and the Housing Opportunity Commission may exercise the Right of First Refusal to purchase the property and convert it to mixed use with affordable housing options. The irony of this is that the city council as now constituted was elected mainly due to the then candidates opposition to another affordable income development, something which they seem to have little compunction about now.
There are those in our community that are concerned that an influx of subsidized families will crater the property value of our townhouses, bring increased crime, noise, traffic into an otherwise quiet neighborhood.
Personally, I am most concerned about the elementary school. Currently, it is operating at 140% of capacity and my child's class is at the legal limit of 27, in a relocatable. I suspect at least another bus load of kids from the complex because in our area affordable housing subsidy seems highly weighted towards families with young children. I suspect this increase will also mean more free and reduced meals, special education, English for speakers of other languages program expenditures that may further burden a school already dealing with cut backs.
Now I fancy myself a "we're all in this together" kind of person. I support the idea of affordable housing, and the mixed income levels proposed by a new urbanism, and the needs of at risk children to have access to quality schools. We've lived beside affordable housing families in this area before (but elsewhere) and they were good kids and people. Some of my child's friends at school are from affordable housing families elsewhere in town and I myself would have qualified for such, if there was something like it in rural New england in the 1970's.
Yet I would be lying if I cavalierly said that I didn't have lingering concerns about all the societal challenges that come with poverty landing on my doorstep.
There is a City Council Meeting on Monday, I will be scheduled to talk, the Council knows me quite well, and my position will be televised on the local cable channel, yet I am not sure what I am going to say.
Any thoughts?
UPDATE: Regarding the proposed affordable housing plans, I found the following...
The latest iteration of an ongoing effort by the Mayor and Council to support affordable housing in Rockville centers on the possibility that Rockville Housing Enterprises (RHE), the City's housing authority that manages low- and moderate-income housing programs and properties in Rockville, might buy the 236-unit complex in the Hungerford neighborhood.
RHE seeks to acquire the property to preserve its current use as rental housing that is affordable to households with a mix of incomes. RHE proposes that 60% of the units (142 units) be market-rate housing and 40% of the units (94 units) be affordable to households who earn up to 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or $64,500 for a family of four.
The development was built in the 1960s and includes 236 garden-style, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. The development is Metro and I-270 accessible and includes green space, a playground, an outdoor grill/picnic area, and a swimming pool.
Under the Montgomery County Code, the County, Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC), or a tenant organization has 60 days to exercise a Right of First Refusal option once a multi-family owner has negotiated a sales contract with a buyer. The County exercised this right on behalf of RHE at the end of August 2012.
RHE has secured a mortgage loan for 90% of the total purchase price of $36 million. The gap between what RHE has already secured through financing and what it needs to complete the purchase, including closing costs and other fees, is $5.3 million. Montgomery County has agreed to contribute $2.8 million, to match RHE and the City's combined contributions up to $2.5 million to close the gap. RHE is able to contribute $500,000 from its own resources and has requested the City's assistance with the remaining $2 million. Montgomery County's funding match is contingent on the City participating financially in the purchase.
Of the $2 million requested from the City, $500,000 could come from the City's Housing Opportunities Fund, which is intended to help preserve or create housing for low- and moderate-income households. The remaining $1.5 million could come from the city's FY13 (current) budget. Both funding sources require a budget amendment be approved by the Mayor and Council.
Sept. 24, 2012: The Mayor & Council will hear an updated presentation from RHE on the details of their plans for purchasing and operating the complex and will discuss whether the city can commit $1.5 million from its current fiscal year 2013 budget or other sources and $500,000 from the Housing Opportunities Fund to loan/grant to RHE for the purchase; the Mayor and Council will also identify any outstanding questions or information needed and consider whether a noticed public hearing should take place on Oct. 8, 2012