Press Room

Group studies affordable housing for city police

By Earl Kelly, Staff Writer

Annapolis must help police officers find affordable housing, and require them to live within city limits, a small group of local leaders said yesterday during a meeting at the city's Planning and Zoning Office.

"The reason for the requirement to live within the city is it provides greater security for the city," said Alderman Sam Shropshire, D-Ward 7 and a chief organizer of the meeting. "If we are going to help them buy a house, we expect them to live in the city."

"I know there are a lot of people in Eastport who would like to have police cars parked in their neighborhood," Mr. Shropshire said.

Franklin Bolling, a sales associate with Coldwell Banker, said his analysis of the housing market showed about 50 homes priced at $250,000 or less sold in Annapolis last year.

The total number of similarly priced homes in the area, including places such as Crownsville, totaled about 140, he said.

Not only are there not many homes in this price range, but it may be difficult for police officers to afford them. Presently, annual pay for city police officers ranges from $35,000 to $46,000 a year, said Alderman Ross Arnett, D-Ward 8, who helped organize the meeting.

Mr. Bolling said the unions that represent public servants, such as teachers, firefighters and police officers, should be required to invest in affordable housing within the city.

Also, the timing may be right for some major shifts in the local real estate market as some of the city's largest owners of rental property are aging, and the owners or their heirs may want to liquidate some of their holdings, Mr. Bolling said.

He said the city should approach some of these owners to see if they would consider parting with some of their properties in exchange for a "legacy," such as special recognition. The city could then add the properties to its pool of affordable housing, which could be sold or rented to police officers.

Also, he said the city should have an annual fundraiser, such as that orchestrated by the United Way, to raise money to help officers pay for housing.

"We have been working for months and months," Mr. Shropshire said of the search for ways to provide police officers with affordable housing in Annapolis. "This has nothing to do with current (crime) trends."

The force has slots for 135 sworn officers, he said, but 23 positions are vacant.

The simple solution to police officer housing would be to pay officers enough that they could live in the city, and then make it part of their contract. Only, the public doesn't want to pay more taxes, the two aldermen said.

Yesterday's meeting with city Planning and Zoning Director Jon Arason was the group's fourth time together, but the first one made known to the public, Mr. Shropshire said.

Mr. Shropshire predicted that solving the affordable housing problem for police officers will take "several million dollars."

Mr. Arnett said instead of creating new programs that would cost money to administer, he hopes to "piggyback onto existing programs."

The group, which included Nancy Rase, president of Homes for America, a nonprofit housing development corporation, plans to meet at the Planning and Zoning Office on Gorman Street on the fourth Tuesday of each month, Mr. Arnett said.

The two aldermen said their goal is to have funding for the measure included in the fiscal 2009 budget, which will come out next February.

Published Sept. 26, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.