Downtown Housing Earmarked For Low Income

COLUMBIA, MD - About 20 percent of housing scheduled for the future downtown Columbia could be available for lower-income residents and paid for through a fund run by a private, nonprofit group under a proposal from General Growth Properties Inc. In July, the Chicago-based developer unveiled plans that would create five neighborhoods with 5,500 housing units, as well as retail, office, hotel and cultural space in downtown Columbia as part of a 30-year master plan for the area.

The overall concept of the master plan is to make downtown accessible to pedestrians, environmentally friendly and to connect neighborhoods with the Columbia mall and public spaces. County government officials expect to receive the formal plan from General Growth later this month. Although details on the affordable housing component are still being worked out, the initial plan would be aimed at those making less than $80,000 a year and those within the $80,000 to $120,000 bracket, said Gregory Hamm, general manager for Columbia and a regional vice president with General Growth.

General Growth would contribute start-up money to an affordable housing fund operated by a nonprofit and the fund would grow through contributions from developers buying land in the downtown area and fees charged to retail and commercial tenants, Hamm said. "We think the idea has a lot of promise," he said. Housing earmarked for lower-income residents would be built to the same quality standards as other homes and mixed among market-price houses and apartments, Hamm said.

Also among General Growth's plans are a rental assistance program and a shared-equity program in which a nonprofit organization would assist residents with the purchase of their homes while retaining some of the equity in the home upon its resale, Hamm said. Hamm also said he hopes to build a degree of flexibility into the nonprofit charged with overseeing affordable housing.

For instance, if residents feel there's a strong need for child care assistance, the program could use money from the fund to address the issue, he said. "We would want the local group that manages this to really determine what the needs are at a given time," Hamm said. "We wanted them to have the flexibility to not only spend the money on housing; there could be other issues that are more urgent." Included in the housing plans is the possibility of three or four bedroom units with a common bathroom that could be shared by students and other lower-income residents.

Sherman Howell, a member of the advisory group appointed by General Growth to make recommendations on affordable housing, said he thinks creating a multi-million dollar fund could be a successful way to address the shortage of housing for people with lower incomes. Howell, the vice president of the African American Coalition of Howard County and a former member of a county government task force on affordable housing, said he liked keeping the responsibility on the private sector, rather than relying on government to handle it.

Having the power of General Growth behind the initiative will help convince developers to get on board, he added. "There's always been a concern that the cost of land has been prohibiting affordable housing," he said. "It's definitely a serious issue ... our approach is an attempt to resolve this issue of land being too costly. We think we've come up with a way to deal with it."