This is Part 2 of a two-part series on affordable housing in College Park. Part 1, which focused on the lack of affordable housing, appeared in the September issue of College Park Here & Now.
Although some officials and residents decry the lack of affordable housing in College Park, the city is home to some lower-rent apartment complexes and homeownership programs.
Some of those target specific demographics, like the elderly or disabled, while others aim for prices that lower-income tenants or potential homeowners can afford.
For example, Flats at College Park, a 317-unit affordable housing community on Baltimore Avenue, opened most of its units over the summer for tenants who earn 50%, 60% and 80% of the area’s median income (AMI), according to Danny Copeland, a vice president for RST Development, which built the complex. The community is income restricted, he added.
At Flats, the maximum rent for a one-bedroom apartment for tenants earning 80% of AMI is $2,190, and for those with incomes of 50% AMI, it’s $1,320. If multiple tenants share the apartment, rent is based on their combined income, according to RST.
Flats was financed, in part, through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, Copeland said.
That U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program allows tax credits for developers to buy, rehabilitate or build rental housing for lower-income households.
RST Development also received a reduction in real estate taxes from the county, Copeland said.
Another affordable housing option in College Park is Atworth, a 451-unit apartment building located next to the College Park–University of Maryland Metro Station. Tenants there may not have incomes more than 80% AMI.
For potential homeowners, the College Park Community Preservation Trust, run by the College Park City-University Partnership, buys single-family homes and then sells them, but not the land underneath them, according to Orlando Velez, the director of operations and housing initiatives.
Because the partnership owns the land, the homeowner can sell the house only with the trust’s permission, Velez said. The two-year-old trust, which targets those who earn less than 140% of AMI, has sold nine homes so far.
This kind of trust has been used by many communities across the country to incorporate affordable housing, starting in the 1960s with the Civil Rights Movement, Kendra McAbee, the partnership’s communications coordinator, said.
Another program, Live+Work College Park, offers full-time employees who work in College Park zero-interest $20,000 loans to help with down payments or closing costs if they purchase a home in the city, according to David Varnado, the senior program and operations manager.
Homeowners who stay in their homes for seven years do not have to repay their loans.
The nine-year-old program, which does not have income restrictions, is for buyers who do not already own property in College Park, Varnado said.
The program has issued more than $1.65 million in down payment assistance and helped its 100th homeowner buy a house in July.
“That funding can really be that last little piece they need to get them across the finish line,” Varnado said.
Another city initiative, the New Neighbors Homeownership Grant Program, offers grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to help with down payments or closing costs for College Park residents, UMD graduate students and first responders.
The city owns an apartment building offering lower-than-market rate rents.
The 108-unit Attick Towers on Rhode Island Avenue sets rents at 30% of an individual’s income for those 55 and older or disabled, according to Michelle Johnson, executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of College Park.
Several residents said without Attick Towers, they wouldn’t be able to afford to live in College Park—or perhaps anywhere.
“I’d probably still be on the streets or still out there looking for housing,” one resident, Constance Ferguson, said.