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About 100 families at the Marylander Condominiums in Prince George’s County have been ordered to leave after several buildings were deemed uninhabitable following a heat outage that began the week of Thanksgiving.
The condo association and Quasar Property Management, which was hired in April, say the complex’s boiler system failed the day before Thanksgiving after someone from a nearby homeless encampment vandalized it. The damage, they said, caused high-pressure blowouts in nine of the complex’s 19 buildings and will take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair.
Kenneth Brown, a broker and CEO of Quasar, said the property was already in poor condition after years of mismanagement by the previous firm. He said the board had approved plans to modernize the infrastructure, but the vandalism derailed those efforts. A full modernization project, including new electrical systems and individual HVAC units, is now estimated at $8 million.
“We were sort of limping along until we got to Thanksgiving. That final act of vandalism is just something that couldn’t be recovered from,” Brown said.
He added that the company plans to seek help from the county, state and utility companies.
County response hampered by oversight gaps
Prince George’s County Council member Wanika Fisher said her office is working to find emergency housing for the displaced residents and has reached out to the Department of Housing to explore rental assistance options.
She also pushed back at claims from the management company that the county has done little to address their concerns about the homeless encampment. She acknowledged the encampment has been a persistent issue and said the county has cleared the area multiple times, but people return.
“We’ve gone out, and our county executive has gone out. We’ve cleared that back area several times, but the reality is, people come back even after we clear it out,” Fisher said.
Fisher said her office has recommended that the condo association hire private security and install cameras, but Phil Dawit, Quasar’s managing director, criticized that suggestion, saying private security cannot dismantle organized criminal activity operating across multiple properties.
“It is the responsibility of law enforcement to disrupt organized criminal activity and to protect innocent, law-abiding citizens and, especially, children,” Dawit said.
Fisher said the county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement must cite violations when inspectors see them but can waive those citations once repairs are made. She added that years of deferred maintenance contributed to the crisis.
“We’re always happy to work with the management company and the residents to find a solution, but part of the solution is going to come at a cost — to secure the building, to fix the building, to fix the condos. When you defer maintenance, this is the impact of that,” Fisher said.
She noted the situation underscores why the county rarely approves new condo developments, citing governance failures that often lead to severe maintenance issues.
Meanwhile, residents like Jason Van Horne say they have nowhere else to go.
“Please, have compassion for the residents of the Marylander Condominiums that pay their bills on time,” Van Horne said.
The Prince George’s County Executive’s office, speaking also on behalf of DPIE, said it is aware of the situation involving the property and is looking at what support is available for residents.
A spokesperson from the office of the county executive told WTOP that DPIE “will assist in any way that we can” and is working with the complex owner to fix the problems.
They have been “working closely with the managing agent daily to notify” the affected families about county resources, including homeowner’s insurance and warming centers.
“We will continue to identify ways we can be of assistance and, the managing agent has agreed to assist our Office of Community Relations Team to give out blankets or other items affected families may need. So far, none of the families have opted to leave,” the spokesperson wrote.
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