Annapolis again ducks affordable housing

Onceagain, the Annapolis City Council has pulled back from actions that would make the city a more affordable place to live.

Alderman Rob Savidge this week withdrew affordable housing legislation that would have allowed the creation of accessory dwelling units in almost every part of the city where single-family detached homes can be built. It didn’t have enough votes to pass.

This is an old concept: having a second small dwelling right on the same grounds (or attached to) your regular singlefamily house. It might be an apartment over the garage, a tiny house in the backyard or a basement apartment.

Opponents expressed doubt about the effectiveness of the bill, that therewas no control of pricing to make them affordable

We think it had more to do with the reluctance of council members to accept the notion that there is room in the city for people who don’t want to or can’t afford single-family homes, existing condos or apartments. Some of these same critics would never vote for the kind of rent control needed to set the market for housing.

Annapolis has one affordable housing project underway, a moderately-priced dwelling unit program that has had modest success at best and a collection of federally subdivided apartments and townhouses either owned by the Annapolis housing authority or private companies.

As the recently settled discrimination lawsuit against the city claimed, the conditions in some of those units do not meet minimum health and safety standards. The city looked away from the problem for years by failing to inspect them, as it does for all other rental units. That practice has ended.

Savidge and others on the council who want to see alternative units become part of the city’s housing stock have theirwork cut out for them. They will have to overcome fears that the residents of these homes will change the character of the city’s neighborhoods.

That character is already changing. As housing prices have risen, Annapolis has become largely untouchable as a place to live for many young adults just starting out. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment ranges from $1,700 to $1,900 a month.

People who work in the city — teachers, firefighters, service industry employees — simply have to look elsewhere to live.

Thatmakes the city far different than it was a decade ago, or two decades ago.

The council has already shied away from proposals to ease restrictions on multi-family housing in parts of the city, blocking an infusion of housing that people at the start of their working life can afford.

Rather than delay the bill for a third consecutive meeting, Savidge said he will start over.

Only this time, he’ll have a legal mandate on which to base his legislation. As a part of the settlement earlier this month, the city agreed to create a plan that will address affordable housing needs and programs to achieve it.

We suspect that alternative dwelling units will be part of that plan and that this council has only delayed the inevitable.