Thursday, May 28 marks the 56th Annual Meeting of Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. (BNI), one of the oldest fair housing agencies in the nation. The event will be highlighted by a keynote address from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. BNI has been working for justice in housing since 1959. The evening also marks one month since the April 28 uprising in neighborhoods and communities of Baltimore.
As noted by Michael Mark, BNI's distinguished immediate past president and author of "But Not Next Door," when BNI was founded, its leaders believed that it would accomplish its goals of stable, integrated neighborhoods and equal housing opportunity within five years or be disbanded. Five years later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting discrimination in employment. It was not until another four years elapsed before Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act.
Today, 56 years later, discrimination persists to impact the people of Baltimore as well as throughout Maryland and the nation. Through the years, Baltimore's community leaders, public officials, charitable organizations and individuals have evidenced no lack of passion or desire to improve the lives of those in need. The events and conversations in Baltimore over the past month offer hope of a resurgent willingness to collaborate and compromise to create solutions concerning education, transportation, health care, crime and justice, employment and housing. Most of us know what the problems are. In 1961, applying for its IRS 501(c) 3 charitable status, BNI's stated purpose was to "lessen neighborhood tensions, to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, to enforce, promote and defend human and civil rights secured by law, and to combat community deterioration and juvenile delinquency."
We have read about, and many have personal recollections of, Baltimore's history of segregation which BNI sought to eradicate almost a decade before there was a Fair Housing Act. We know or have experienced the buzz word practices like blockbusting and steering that created and perpetuated racially-segregated communities. More recently, just as there appeared to be hope of putting these practices and their consequences behind us, mortgage fraud and predatory lending snatched the homes and financial opportunity from many of us, disproportionately impacting and even targeting minority neighborhoods.
On a personal note, I have never forgotten the day in the early 1990s when I came to Baltimore from my home in Montgomery County. After arriving via Interstate 695 and conducting business at the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Reisterstown Plaza, I decided to head downtown to the Inner Harbor. I was not familiar with Baltimore but had a good enough sense of direction to know that if I headed south, toward the high-rise buildings, I'd get there. The still-existing, all-too-familiar boarded-up homes and poverty along the way were shocking to me. It was as though the glimmering city towers and shiny shops along the waterfront were like a movie set.
Concerns with concentrated poverty are not new. In fact, one of BNI's founders prophetically warned of the consequences of concentrated poverty, black or white. James Rouse, a signer of BNI's Articles of Incorporation said:
"Flight of the medium and upper income families from the city limits and the replacement by persons of both races of the lowest income levels is a threat not only to our municipal solvency but to the economic stability of the entire metropolitan area."
BNI was founded with a goal of preventing discrimination in housing. Without the Fair Housing Act, our efforts were focused on advocacy, education and outreach. Later, enforcement of federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws became part of BNI's program. Today, BNI conducts training for tenants and home buyers as well as housing providers such as landlords, home builders, lenders, real estate sales and rental agents and government officials. BNI conducts "mystery shopping" or testing to identify discriminatory practices. In 2014, BNI conducted dozens of education and outreach programs, received scores of fair housing complaints, conducted hundreds of tests and investigations and responded to thousands of inquiries from tenants and landlords seeking guidance on their rights and responsibilities.
For over 35 years, the BNI Tenant-Landlord Program has provided impartial services for both tenants and landlords via its Tenant-Landlord Hotline. BNI also publishes the Guide to Local, State, and Federal Laws Governing Tenant and Landlord Relations. The publication assists with helping to reduce evictions, stabilize families and communities and improve relationships between tenants and landlords.
Although BNI's mission of working for housing justice is not new, our work for housing justice is as critical today as it was in 1959. As partners and colleagues working together we can achieve the so-far elusive goal of equal housing opportunity for all, even if it takes another 56 years.
Robert J. Strupp, Baltimore
The writer is executive director of Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc.