Category: Housing and Homelessness

Assistance to homeless persons enhanced by opening of community resource center

Howard County, Md. recently opened a new facility for homeless persons, the Leola Dorsey Community Resource Center.  It now houses the Day Resource Center that previously operated on Route 1, includes 35 apartments, and is based on an increasingly popular model for addressing homelessness called “Housing First.” Here is a primer on the new center and the challenge of homelessness in Howard County, Md.

(This post is an update of a previous HoCoMDcc post, “Howard County’s Latest Effort to End Homelessness”, June 21, 2016)

Howard County officials unveil Dorsey Community Resource Center

by Kate Magill (Howard County Times), October 2, 2017 [EXCERPTS]

Amid a crowd of nearly 100 people, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman unveiled the Leola Dorsey Community Resource Center on Monday, joined by Howard County Housing Commissioner Peter Engel, state Sens. Gail Bates and Guy Guzzone and several other officials.

County Executive Allan Kittleman and Charles Dorsey, son of civil rights activist Leola Dorsey, cut the ribbon at the opening of the Leola Dorsey Community Resource Center on Oct. 2. (VOA Chesapeake)

The facility, located near Guilford Road in Jessup, includes 35 permanent residences [operated by Volunteers of America Chesapeake] and a first-floor day resource center, operated by Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

With its ability to serve more than 100 people a day, Engel noted that the center is able to serve at least half of the county’s homeless population on any given day. There were 214 homeless individuals in Howard County in 2016, according to state data.

Continue reading Assistance to homeless persons enhanced by opening of community resource center

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Does Columbia still believe in Affordable Housing?

The Department of Housing and Urban Development states that housing is affordable if it costs no more than 30% of family income. Affordable housing for all economic groups is a bedrock principal in Columbia. Nonetheless, the three newest apartments in Columbia – – Alta Wilde Lake, The Metropolitan, and Lakehouse (Little Patuxent Square) — are all Class A or “luxury” apartments. This is evident by the ways the apartments describe themselves, and it’s easy to see by their starting rents that they are unaffordable to the secretaries, sales associates, builders, maintenance workers, cooks and waiters that make it all happen. 

The Downtown Columbia Plan anticipates construction of 6,250 residential units that will be priced however the market will bear. The February agreement by the County and Howard Hughes Corporation requires there be 900 affordable apartments built downtown, but advocates say only about 500 units will create new family opportunities; 400 units duplicate what is already available in other Columbia Villages. And we’re further increasing the stock of high-rent apartments with Kimco’s proposal of “luxury” apartments at Hickory Ridge Village Center. Continue reading Does Columbia still believe in Affordable Housing?

Howard County’s Latest Effort to End Homelessness

Howard County, Md. recently broke ground on a new facility for homeless persons, the Leola Dorsey Community Resource Center.  It will house the existing Day Resource Center, include 35 apartments, and is based on an increasingly popular model for addressing homelessness called “Housing First.” Here is a primer on the new center and the challenge of homelessness in Howard County, Md.

[This information has been updated with a new HoCoMDcc post, “Assistance to homeless persons enhanced by opening of community resource center“, October 6, 2017]
Continue reading Howard County’s Latest Effort to End Homelessness