Prince George’s County officials are planning a mass evacuation of the Marylander Condominiums, where residents have marked their ninth week without heat after blaming a homeless encampment for sabotaging their boiler.
An injunction pending before Maryland District Judge Bryon Bereano would empower the county to enforce a December code violation ordering roughly 200 people, or half of all residents, to “vacate immediately” because their condo association cannot afford repairs.
“The County understands that the Marylander currently lacks the financial resources necessary to repair its boiler system and, as a result, has no viable plan or funding in place to restore heat to residents,” Devan Martin, deputy chief of staff for County Executive Aisha Braveboy, said in an email.
“Given the current cold weather conditions, it is unsafe for residents to remain in their units without central heat,” Mr. Martin said.
Unidentified people shuffle into the Marylander …
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He said the county is “actively working” to reschedule a hearing originally set for Wednesday in Hyattsville.
Recent snowfall closed Prince George’s district courts for most of the week, delaying all legal proceedings indefinitely.
Half of the condo’s 200 units have been left in the cold since the day before Thanksgiving, when residents say vagrants from a nearby 20-person tent encampment damaged a 70-year-old boiler. The county has insisted there is no evidence to support their accusation.
“We can’t live like this,” Walter Guardado, a renter at the property, said in an email. “We need them to fix the heating and get rid of the camp of drug-addicted homeless people.”
Officials at property manager Quasar said a $2.5 million bank loan to fix the boiler fell through after county inspectors declared the condos unsafe.
Phil Dawit, Quasar’s managing director of real estate, said the Rockville company is working to repair a property fence and building locks that transients bypassed last year.
“They still trespass on the community grounds, create large fires and continue to make attempts to break into units,” Mr. Dawit said.
Condo owners have defied county inspectors who declared their homes “unfit for human habitation” after the boiler incident.
Several residents told The Washington Times on Friday that they had no intention of paying discounted rates for hotel rooms, which county officials invited them to do at a Jan. 22 meeting.
“If someone is having issues and they leave, that will open the door for unwanted guests,” said Kamran Choudhury, a renter who said transients frequently break in to sleep in the hallway. “This is not a solution.”
Families also cited concerns about temporary housing not allowing pets and a lack of funds to pay for the rooms indefinitely.
“We don’t have enough money to move somewhere else,” said Andreina Elias, a renter who said space heaters frequently knock out her electricity. “I’m really frustrated because we are paying a lot of money and we are freezing.”
Rolando Lopez, a Bolivian immigrant who owns his unit, said Quasar raised his condo association fee from $543 a month to about $1,400.
Mr. Lopez, a 67-year-old retired kitchen manager, said his building has been without electricity since Thursday night.
“How can I pay a $1,400 monthly condo fee and then $110 a night to stay in a hotel? That’s crazy,” Mr. Lopez said. “We’re not rich people; we don’t live in Bethesda.”
He said the notice declaring his condo “unfit for human habitation” has also left him unable to sell it.
“Nobody’s going to buy this condo without electricity and heat,” Mr. Lopez added. “Who wants to pay a condo fee on top of a mortgage for a home they can’t stay in?”
Renter Ericka Carillo said she and her children huddled in their kitchen while unhoused addicts raided units during the recent storm.
“The cold was unbearable,” Ms. Carillo said. “I had to boil water to keep the apartment warm, but even so, it wasn’t enough.”
Condo owners said a recent police cleanup of the encampment did not stop vagrants from returning to defecate, have sex, set fires and sell illicit drugs.
“They still come inside the building to sleep, do drugs and whatever it is they do,” said Chris Barber, whose family has owned its unit since 1982.
According to Prince George’s County officials, none of the Marylander residents have accepted their offer of temporary housing.
County attorneys Anthony Jones and Jason Alston have petitioned Judge Bereano to enforce evacuation by fining the condo association $500 for each day that residents do not leave.
“Respondent has willfully failed to comply with the Violation Notices and the violations cited therein remain unabated,” Mr. Jones and Mr. Alston wrote in a Jan. 14 writ of summons.
Kenneth Brown, Quasar’s CEO, said the condo association has little money in the bank and owes $3 million in debts to local utility companies.
“Between the county not taking action and encouraging the encampment, they’re pushing 100 low-income families to become homeless themselves,” Mr. Brown said.
