TALKING POINTS FOR QUESTIONS ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

PUBLIC MEETING WITH IKE LEGGETT, MARCH 12, 2008

As a member of Progressive Neighbors which endorsed you in 2006, we are very concerned about what has been happening to tenants in the County. We are looking to you to provide leadership to help tenants in the County.

-As almost everyone concedes, there is a crisis when it comes to affordable rental housing in Montgomery County, which is threatening tenants as well as the economic and social diversity of our community. People are increasingly unable to find units at reasonable rents and those people already in such units are being displaced because of huge rent increases, far exceeding the increase in people's incomes.

-Yet, to make matters worse, existing units are being torn down to make way for high priced apartments, or are being converted to expensive condominiums

-By all accounts the County's response has been totally inadequate. Rent guidelines are voluntary which mean they are not enforceable.

-The County's initiatives – requirements to build MPDUs (Moderately Priced Dwelling Units) and workforce housing – are little more than a drop in the bucket and do not represent an adequate response to this important crisis our County faces. The numbers simply do not come close to meeting the number of affordable housing units that are being lost.

-Even if we use affordable to mean that a family or individual will not have to pay more than 30% of its income to meet housing needs (and we think that is too high a percent) - it would mean that a family or individual earning $30,000 to $35,000 a year would be looking for an apartment with utilities for $750 to $875 a month.

-Given the County's budget crisis, it is inconceivable that the County can purchase or cause developers to build enough units like this to replace what is being lost.

-Our question: Will you provide leadership in protecting tenants and affordable housing? Will you support a program of rent stabilization and a moratorium on condo conversions that destroy affordable housing?