The Baltimore Sun recently published an astonishing document: "Embrace Port Covington, don't chase it away" (July 6). This commentary is written by the former mayor, Kurt Schmoke, most responsible for destroying affordable housing in Baltimore. With unintentional irony, Mr. Schmoke begins by quoting the former president (Bill Clinton) most responsible for ravaging America's cities through historic, misguided policies that included mass incarceration, welfare "reform" and a fierce assault against public housing.
Yet it is the rhetoric of the op-ed that is most disturbing and wrong-headed. Two notable examples: First is this: "We read in a lot of newspaper articles and hear that our communities are 'deeply divided' over Port Covington. This is patently false." The forces arrayed against the "Bucks for Billionaire" TIF include people from downtown (residents of the Weinberg homeless shelter), East Baltimore, Northeast Baltimore and even Cherry Hill. As Vivian Singletary, a resident of Cherry Hill, testified to the Planning Commission concerning the housing prices planned for Port Covington, "There's no one I know that makes that kind of money. So that automatically means the people in my community are going to be left out."
Secondly, Mr. Schmoke writes, "Critics like to talk at length about the state of Baltimore City, calling attention to its ills and diagnosing its problems … but put forth no workable solutions." This is patently false. The Housing Roundtable, BRACE, the ACLU and the Public Justice Center, and our own organization CASH (City Advocates in Solidarity with the Homeless) have promulgated serious alternatives to the failed development strategies supported by Mr. Schmoke's piece.
These alternatives include democratically-controlled public housing, community land trusts for permanent housing affordability, living wage requirements, ending the housing and employment exclusion of returning citizens, addressing hyper-segregation with affirmative fair housing, prohibiting housing discrimination by source of income, an end to the war on drugs and on poor communities and a comprehensive city-wide plan for affordable housing. (Baltimore is the only major city between Washington, D.C. and Boston without such a plan.)
A specific interim step we suggest is appointing a Baltimore Housing Commissioner who would enforce our (nation's worst) Inclusionary Housing ordinance until that law is amended. The law clearly states that a minimum of 10 percent of Port Covington housing (1,400 units) must be affordable to low income Baltimoreans without requiring any additional city contribution of funds. Commissioner Paul Graziano and the Board of Estimates, all supporters of Port Covington, ignored this section of the law when they signed the Port Covington MOU. An administration prioritizing the 32.6 percent of Baltimore's children living in poverty would negotiate a far better deal.
Rather than "embrace" Port Covington and the failed policies of the past, we propose a new vision for the future. Development can and should benefit all of our neighborhoods based on principle, not on profit.
Jeff Singer and Lauren Siegel, Baltimore
The writers represent City Advocates in Solidarity with the Homeless.