What Lynette Vanhorne craves most when she returns to her Hyattsville-area condo after work is heat in her unit — and for vagrants from a nearby homeless encampment to stop using the building’s laundry room as a toilet.
Ms. Vanhorne, 72, has owned her unit at the Marylander Condominiums for nearly 20 years. Now, she and her grown son can’t wash their clothes without risking harassment from the transients they suspect broke the building’s boiler the day before Thanksgiving.
“They tear up the laundry room, they sleep in the building, they have sex,” the nursing home worker and Jamaican immigrant said this week, her voice rising with frustration. “You have to get up in the morning and look through the peephole before you can leave.”
Her condo is one of 100 units that will mark their seventh consecutive week without heat on Wednesday. That’s half of the 200-unit Marylander’s roughly 400 residents.
Many condo residents huddled around space heaters in extra layers of clothing during the recent holidays, defying a Prince George’s County code violation notice to “vacate immediately.”
Meanwhile, they say homeless addicts from the neighboring encampment keep bypassing a property fence and building locks to roam the condo building.
“We have documented instances of individuals entering the building to consume illicit drugs and using the hallways for defecation, urination, sexual acts, and even fires set to our laundry rooms,” said Scott Barber, a condo owner since 1982 who lives with his mother and brother.
He said county officials and the condominium owners’ association have failed to contain the encampment, which residents say often swells to 50 people.
“When we contact the police regarding active disturbances, the response is either non-existent or results in no action,” Mr. Barber said. “It appears the county is ignoring these systemic issues to avoid the negative optics of clearing an encampment.”
Property management officials and homeowners interviewed by The Washington Times agreed that the situation cannot improve until county police clear the encampment and its open-air drug market from a vacant lot next door.
One female condo owner who asked to remain anonymous said killings, prostitution, fires, masked men with guns and car break-ins have become common.
“Police are called and never come,” she said. “This is predominantly a Hispanic community. They are also scared to talk because of their immigration status.”
Bad to worse
Officials at Quasar Real Estate took over management of the Marylander’s condo association in April, replacing a mom-and-pop firm with questionable financial practices.
The small Rockville company employs 15-20 employees and contractors to oversee roughly 2,000 housing units in the District, Virginia and Maryland. It has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2010 and has an A+ rating from the consumer advocacy watchdog.
Quasar officials promptly raised condo association fees, stymied contractor embezzling and installed $20,000 worth of locks in the Marylander’s 19 buildings.
Homeowners and company officials said encampment residents responded by breaking most of the locks and prying a hole in a new $27,000 security fence before workers could finish it.
They also blame the encampment for the Nov. 26 break-in that wrecked the boiler, leaving nearly half of the buildings without heat.
Quasar CEO Kenneth Brown said he had secured a $2.5 million loan to repair the damage. But the bank canceled the loan after county inspectors posted a notice on Dec. 10 declaring the property “unfit for human habitation” and advising residents to “vacate immediately,” he added.
He said he now needs $17 million to fix everything at once to make the county rescind its warnings. That requires financing for deferred capital improvements to the roof, electrical system, HVAC unit and a crumbling community swimming pool.
“The situation is dire,” said Mr. Brown, who previously worked as a mortgage lender at J.P. Morgan Chase.
He said he cannot secure loans for the repairs until the county stops the homeless encampment from sabotaging his efforts.
The Prince George’s County Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement told The Times it will not remove the violation notices until Mr. Brown fixes the heat.
Inspectors said their notice to vacate means that the condos are unfit for occupancy as long as indoor temperatures remain below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, as was the case when they responded to a Dec. 9 complaint.
“To date, the property is still in violation for the two notices,” said Avis Thomas-Lester, the department’s communications manager.
She added that her agency’s inspectors are “not involved in the investigation of the encampment.”
The Prince George’s County Police Department declined to elaborate on what its officers have done to clean up the camp.
“There is currently an ongoing operation in this area, and we cannot comment any further at this time,” the department said in an email.
The Washington Times has reached out to the office of Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy for comment.
’Nothing but excuses’
On Monday morning, an open-air fire smoldered in the encampment as unidentified individuals shuffled through a gaping hole in the security fence separating it from the Marylander Condominiums.
Jagged potholes filled the parking lot, and yellow caution tape highlighted several areas in structural decay.
Phil Dawit, Quasar’s managing director of real estate, said county police cleared some tents and people from the encampment in late December after local TV and radio outlets reported on the heating crisis.
But he said homeless addicts and masked men have continued to terrorize the working-class, largely immigrant community.
He gestured toward one condo wall near the encampment marked with stylized “LP” — graffiti that some residents identified as the sign of the Langley Park crew, a local offshoot of the Salvadoran street gang MS-13.
“Prince George’s County gives us nothing but excuses, as if they’re afraid for their lives or just checking off boxes,” Mr. Dawit said. “They tell us homelessness is not a crime, and they say they can’t disperse the camp because there are too many of them.”
Residents hurried quietly in and out of the condo buildings throughout the morning, darting quick glances behind them.
“I wear multiple layers of clothing in bed, including my coat, hat and gloves on days that are extremely cold,” said one condo owner who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation.
“I also have a small space heater,” he added. “However, the challenge is that everyone in the building is using space heaters, so we regularly lose electricity due to the demand on the grid.”
He reported losing $400 in spoiled Christmas leftovers and groceries — including rotted meat and fish — when the electrical grid went down from Dec. 29 to Jan. 4.
Rolando Lopez, a Bolivian immigrant who lives with his wife and two sons, said Quasar raised his condo association fee from $543 a month to about $1,400.
“I’m planning to stay because I have nowhere else to go,” said Mr. Lopez, a 67-year-old retired kitchen manager who bought his unit three years ago. “The problem is that the new management company doesn’t do anything.”
Quasar officials said the condo owners’ association needs financing on top of its dues to bring the property up to code. The company hopes to reduce the fees after completing repairs.
“The county has created a catch-22,” said Mr. Brown, Quasar’s CEO, referring to the “unfit for human habitation” notice that he blames for blocking him from getting a bank loan.
The office of Prince George’s County Council member Wanika Fisher, a Democrat who represents the residents, said it had “no knowledge of MS-13 activity at the property.”
“Homelessness remains an ongoing challenge countywide,” said Shanika Griffith, Ms. Fisher’s chief of staff. “The county continuously offers services, though some individuals decline assistance. On private property, individuals may be asked to leave, and [county police] can enforce trespassing laws; however, individuals often return after release.”
State Sen. James Rosapepe, a Democrat whom condo owners have contacted for help, said the county could still do more to end illegal trespassing and drug use.
“I’m pressing the county to close down the illegal activity,” Mr. Rosapepe said in an email.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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