‘We’re Not Criminalizing the Unhoused’: How a Homeless Encampment and Drug Dealers Are Destroying a Local Condominium Complex and Turning Its Residents’ Lives Upside Downhttps://freebeacon.com/america/were-not-criminalizing-the-unhoused-how-a-homeless-encampment-and-drug-dealers-are-destroying-a-local-condominium-complex-and-turning-its-residents-lives-upside-do/HYATTSVILLE, Md.—The sign outside the Marylander Condominiums, a 200-unit complex in Prince George’s County, Md., describes it as a "private community."
But for members of a homeless encampment in the condo’s backyard, the complex also serves as a crackhouse, a bathroom, and the entrance to an open-air drug market, which has become a magnet for organized crime and caused millions in property damage.
Transients break into buildings and smoke crack in the stairwells. Tenants traversing the property must navigate needles, feces, and sleeping bodies as addicts nap half-naked in the hallways and sprawl themselves like welcome mats outside residents’ doors.
Half of the complex has gone without heat since Thanksgiving after vagrants allegedly vandalized the boiler room, causing pipes to burst in several buildings. Some units have lost electricity, too, due to the overuse of space heaters. Though the county instructed those without heat to "vacate immediately" in December, most have defied the order and tried to weather the cold. They say they have nowhere else to go.
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Billed as a "listening session" for condo-owners to air their grievances, the town hall featured a lengthy presentation on how the county was handling its "unhoused" residents.
"We have to be compassionate," the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for public safety and homeland security, Melvin Powell, said of the encampment, addressing the hundreds of residents who could soon be displaced because of it.
"We’re not criminalizing the unhoused," police major Thomas Boone added.
The situation shocked officials at Quasar Real Estate, a local investment firm, when it began managing the Marylander in April 2025. For months, they pleaded with police and county officials to address the open-air drug market that had effectively colonized the condo, which suffered so many break-ins that the company stopped repairing the locks.
But the county—which has the highest Democratic vote-share of any county in the United States, at 86 percent—didn’t clear the camp. Instead, it threatened to sue the condo, which was already tight on cash, for its failure to fix the nearly $5 million in property damage that has been caused by the drug den on its doorstep.
Something like 15 years ago, the City of San Jose tried the then newest proposed solution to homelessness. They set up several "tiny homes" in a corner of Columbus Park. They were right near where SR87 freeway crossed over I880 freeway, and were visible during my AM commute on I880. Very unsurprisingly, the
Sacred Homeless swiftly trashed the site. The picture of the area on GoogMaps shows the trash, which included some blue tarps. About a year ago, in part courtesy of the Grants Pass USSC ruling, San Jose finally cleaned out that corner of Columbus Park.
Blame whatever combination of drugs, mental illness, hobo choices, and criminals, a lack of homes is not the problem. The problem is people who are unable or unwilling to live like the rest of society. Subsidizing and enabling the
Sacred Homeless is NOT compassion, to the homeless or those they live near/among.
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