Judge urges Prince George’s County to ‘step up’ condo evacuations near homeless camp

A Maryland District Court judge has urged Prince George’s County deputies to “step up” evacuations of an Adelphi-area condominium complex whose residents say vagrants disabled their heating system more than three months ago.

Judge Bryon Bereano expressed concerns during a status hearing on Tuesday that families in only 50 of 108 affected units at the Marylander Condominiums have evacuated “what everyone acknowledges is a dangerous property.”

At the same time, he urged deputies to be “as humane as possible” in their efforts to “incentivize” departures from buildings that county inspectors have declared unfit for human habitation.

“Nobody is looking for just mass throwing out into the streets,” Judge Bereano told a Hyattsville courtroom packed with condo owners.

County attorneys Calisa Smith and Stephen Williams confirmed that property managers heeded an enforcement order the judge signed last month to maintain a nightly fire watch at the property. The watch seeks to prevent transients’ open-air blazes from damaging temporary electrical feeders erected to power residents’ space heaters.

The judge also directed the condo owners’ association to assist with evacuations and make repairs to various areas, including a boiler that hasn’t worked since Nov. 26.

“The buildings are still largely occupied,” Ms. Smith said, adding that most residents disregarded the county’s notices to “vacate immediately.”

Duane Demers, an attorney representing the condo association, noted that the management company Quasar has repaired a hole in the property fence and installed new locks on most building doors.

He said Quasar has also restored electricity in all but one building, where overuse of space heaters during a cold winter overwhelmed the grid.

But he insisted that Quasar remains unable to secure a loan for the millions of dollars required to fix the heating system, a persistent problem since the county’s Dec. 10 notice to vacate caused a bank to withdraw financing.

“I think it’s going to be piecemeal,” Mr. Demers said of the heating repairs.

Judge Bereano acknowledged that the lag in repairs stemmed from “lack of money,” not negligence, and declined to hold Quasar in contempt of court.

He scheduled an April 21 hearing to follow up on the repair progress, but acknowledged that he could lose jurisdiction over the case before then.

The county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement has announced plans to ask a circuit court as early as March 31 to place the Marylander in receivership.

County officials accuse Quasar of delaying repairs and insist there is no evidence that homeless people vandalized the boiler. Receivership would allow the circuit court to appoint a neutral third party to take over the Marylander’s operations, pay bills and make repairs while residents are evacuated.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Greenbelt is scheduled to hear arguments Monday in a lawsuit the condo owners’ association filed to block the county from forcing residents out.

The complaint seeks a jury trial and $25 million in damages, blaming the county for creating the crisis by encouraging the homeless encampment. It also seeks an injunction to block the indefinite evacuations, citing 14th Amendment protections against property seizure without due process.

Mr. Demers, who represents the condo association in both cases, told 25 unit owners and family members after Tuesday’s hearing that Quasar cannot afford repairs without a bank loan.

“They’re not trying to steal it,” he said through a Spanish-language interpreter outside the courtroom, referring to their monthly condo fees.

Several condo owners insisted after the hearing that they couldn’t leave their homes indefinitely, citing a lack of resources to pay for hotels and concerns about leaving their property unsecured near the encampment.

“They act like it’s nothing to evacuate,” said one woman, noting that her daughter has no heat. “Where are they supposed to go?”

Condo owner Rolando Lopez, a Bolivian immigrant, said roughly 20 homeless drug addicts returned to the encampment after the police cleared it recently.

The 67-year-old retiree said they have started using a ladder to scale the fence that Quasar repaired as they continue to sleep, defecate, and use illegal drugs in his building’s common spaces and hallways.

“It’s getting warmer, so we don’t need the heat anymore,” said Mr. Lopez, who has refused to leave. “They don’t need to evacuate us to repair the boiler and electricity. We are human beings and these are our homes.”