Open Letter to the County Executive: Partner With Community Nonprofits to Deliver for Seniors
- Bradley Heard
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
A case for early partnership, practical solutions, and better outcomes for seniors
Dear County Executive Aisha Braveboy:
Prince George’s County has made clear—through words, events, and public messaging—that seniors are a top priority. Your recent communications celebrating older residents, highlighting County services, and uplifting new senior housing investments reinforce that message. That commitment matters, especially as the County’s population ages and affordability pressures intensify.
This letter is written in that spirit: not to dispute the priority you have articulated, but to ask that it be matched with a deeper, more intentional partnership with the nonprofit organizations already doing on-the-ground work to deliver results for seniors—particularly inside the Beltway.
Greater Capitol Heights Improvement Corporation (GCHIC) is one of those organizations. We offer early-stage problem identification, workable alternatives, and a willingness to shoulder time-consuming implementation work that government often lacks the capacity to take on alone.
Nonprofits as Early-Stage Problem Solvers, Not Late-Stage Critics
There is a persistent but misleading narrative that community-based nonprofits only appear to object—to say no after decisions have already been made. GCHIC’s record shows otherwise.
Across multiple issues, over multiple years, our organization has acted deliberately to:
Flag risks early, before they became public controversies;
Propose alternative paths aligned with adopted County plans; and
Seek partnership in service of the public interest.
This work—identifying opportunities, developing implementable alternatives, and shepherding projects through bureaucratic obstacles—is exactly what mission-driven nonprofits are designed to do. But it requires government to be an effective partner, not an impediment.
Three examples illustrate this pattern—and, importantly, how your leadership as County Executive could unlock progress.
1. Tax Sale Certificates and Long-Abandoned Properties
Since 2023, GCHIC has sought to partner with the County’s Office of Finance to acquire selected tax sale certificates for abandoned, tax-burdened properties that have blighted our community for decades.
These are properties that routinely go unsold at the County’s annual tax sale because accumulated tax liens exceed market value. They generate no productive use, depress surrounding property values, and offer no benefit to residents—senior or otherwise.
GCHIC has proposed a straightforward solution: transfer those certificates to a qualified nonprofit willing to clear title, stabilize the properties, and ultimately convey them to affordable housing developers for reuse as senior-friendly housing and mixed-use community-serving retail—walkable, accessible development that allows older residents to age in place.
There is no legal impediment to this approach. Other jurisdictions use similar tools. Yet, in Prince George’s, the Office of Finance has consistently refused to cooperate with GCHIC in its effort to reactivate these long-abandoned sites.
As County Executive, you have the authority to direct a different outcome—to ensure that your administration is an effective partner with the nonprofit sector to convert community eyesores into productive assets.
2. Fairmont Heights High School: A Missed Opportunity Near Transit
In 2025, GCHIC urged the County to consider a long-term ground lease partnership for the historic Fairmont Heights High School site, which Prince George’s County Public Schools had deeded to the County after determining it no longer had an educational use for it.
The $15 million property—located less than half a mile from Cheverly Metro and three-quarters of a mile from Deanwood Metro— is precisely the kind of location where seniors could maintain independence without needing to drive. That’s why GCHIC proposed pursuing a mixed-use transit-oriented redevelopment of the site.
Instead, the County proposed to declare the public property as “surplus” and transfer it to the Redevelopment Authority to facilitate a speculative for-profit film studio project for a politically connected local filmmaker.
For months, GCHIC sought basic information about this plan. When those requests were stonewalled, we were forced to seek relief through litigation, which remains pending.
It shouldn’t be this way. As it stands, the County is actively sparring with and thwarting a local public charity seeking to leverage surplus public land to address a pressing public need: an acute shortage of affordable, transit-oriented housing suitable for seniors and others.
Here again, your leadership as County Executive could reset the conversation toward partnership and long-term community benefit.
3. Landover Mall and the Cost of Ignoring Early Warnings
In 2024, GCHIC was one of the first organizations to object to proposals that would convert the old Landover Mall site—long identified for mixed-use redevelopment—into a massive 87-acre data center.
At the time, the issue received little attention. Since then, it has grown into a countywide controversy, validating the concerns that were initially dismissed.
GCHIC’s early engagement reflected an effort to protect the county’s own vision for the Landover Mall site to be a thriving inner-Beltway mixed-use development. Notably, GCHIC did not argue for blocking data center development. Instead, we identified an alternative path that would accommodate smart digital growth while preserving land for housing and mixed-use development—including opportunities critical to seniors who rely on proximity to services and transit.
As County Executive, you could use your bully pulpit to reinforce adherence to the County’s adopted plans and policy commitments.
An Opportunity for Executive Leadership
As head of the executive branch, you have the ability to:
Direct agencies to partner with qualified nonprofits, rather than defaulting to inaction or obstruction,
Treat qualified nonprofits as thought partners and implementation allies in the public interest,
Align administrative practice with adopted land use and housing goals, and
Ensure that public assets are leveraged to meet public needs.
This is especially important as the County enters an election year. Residents will want to know not only what priorities candidates are identifying, but how they intend to effectively use their power to achieve them.
Our Earnest Invitation
GCHIC is working toward transformative placemaking in the long-neglected inner-Beltway region of Central Prince George’s County. We are seeking to be a community partner with the County government in that effort.
If seniors are truly the top priority you say they are, we invite your administration to partner with us to deliver housing, stability, and dignity for this vital community—and for all residents of Greater Capitol Heights. The record shows we are ready. Can we count on your support?
Sincerely yours,
Greater Capitol Heights Improvement Corporation (GCHIC)
(By Bradley E. Heard, President)
About the Author: Bradley Heard is a civil rights attorney, smart growth advocate, and the founder and president of Greater Capitol Heights Improvement Corporation, a nonprofit public charity dedicated to revitalizing, redeveloping, and reinvesting in central Prince George’s County, Maryland’s inner-Beltway communities.
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