For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Montgomery Councilmember Leventhal’s Remarks Regarding House at Hillmead Park
ROCKVILLE, June 10, 2008—Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal made the following remarks today during the Council discussion regarding use of the house on the 1.3-acre property the County acquired in 2007 adjacent to Hillmead Neighborhood Park in Bethesda.
Two resolutions came before the Council today on the issue. Councilmember Leventhal sponsored a proposal to retain the house, renovate it and use it to house a homeless family, as housing arrangements for large families that become homeless can be particularly difficult to identify. The other resolution would have demolished the home, with the space being used as additional parkland.
Councilmember Leventhal’s remarks:
I am going to speak to six key points: first, the cost of renovating the home; second, the causes of homelessness; third, safety and security for the neighborhood; fourth, the process by which we got here; fifth, usability of the park space; and sixth, the consequences of our decision today. Let me begin by thanking my colleagues Valerie Ervin and Nancy Floreen for agreeing to co-sponsor this resolution which, let’s face it, is not the most popular thing any of us will ever vote on.
1. Cost
I am very proud of Montgomery County’s long-standing policy that no family with children will spend even one night sleeping on the streets. If shelter beds are available, we will find them. If they are not, we place families in motels. Between July 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, Montgomery County assisted more than 230 homeless families, which included more than 450 children. The total cost to the county over this nine-month time period was more than $650,000.
For the most part, these families in crisis are able to get their lives together and find stable housing within a matter of weeks. However, there are some cases where a family is harder to place – perhaps because of a lack of relatives living nearby or because of the family’s large size. The average length of stay in a shelter and/or motel was about 5 months. The longest stay was almost 10 months.
Thirty-nine families stayed in motels or shelters more than 90 days during this time period, at a cost of just over $600,000. The highest cost incurred for one family was about $93,000 with an average cost per family of almost $16,000.
These costs put in perspective the estimated $180,000 necessary to renovate the former Piotrow home for long-term tenancy. It cost the County more than $93,000 to provide temporary housing for one family for less than a year. For less than $200,000, we can provide long-term stable housing for many years. We must jump on the chance to provide housing when it becomes available.
And of course the accusation that we are spending $2.5 million or more to house one family is completely false. We spent $2.5 million to expand the park and we have expanded the park. The question before is now is whether we should keep or demolish the existing structure that sits within the park. We are simply proposing to use the structure that the county already owns for an important public purpose. That structure belongs to all the people of Montgomery County, not just the people who live immediately adjacent to it. There are more than a half-dozen other similar uses in park houses today. None of them have been disruptive to the neighborhoods or the parks in which they are located. Each of them has helped vulnerable, disabled or unlucky people find a stable home.
2. Causes of Homelessness
Now let me speak for a moment about the causes of homelessness. Many people believe that the primary causes of homelessness are mental illness and drug abuse. And, as this chart prepared by the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows, those two causes (mental illness in 65% of cases and substance abuse in 61% of cases) are indeed the primary reasons why single individuals (the bottom chart) become homeless. For homeless families (the top chart), however, it is another story. As you can see, lack of affordable housing was cited by 87% of homeless families with children; poverty was cited by 57% and domestic violence was cited by 39%. Mental illness represented only 17% of cases and substance abuse represented only 13%. When we are talking about homeless families, we are for the most part talking about people who are simply poor, unlucky or abused.