Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has agreed to delay plans to clear a homeless encampment on the Fallsway after advocacy groups urged her to take a different approach, officials said Friday.
The city was scheduled to destroy the encampment Aug. 8, a move that advocates said would be counterproductive.
Kevin Harris, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake, did not provide a timeline for future action but said the administration is open to discussions.
"The city simply cannot allow the encampments to continue indefinitely," Harris said in a statement. "The mayor recognizes that many of the people living in the encampments need additional services — addiction and mental health counseling, job training, and more."
Harris said the mayor's office will continue to work with the housing department and the board of Journey Home, which oversees the mayor's 10-year plan for ending homelessness, to look for further solutions.
City officials alerted homeless services organizations this month that the encampment, a few blocks from City Hall, would be cleared and landscaped. About 20 people live there, according to the city.
The administration remains concerned about the conditions in the encampments, Harris said. He said law enforcement officials regularly hear about illegal activities occurring within the encampments, and the people living there are often the victims of those crimes.
"Encampments present unsafe and unhealthy situations, both for the people residing there and for the men, women and children who live and work nearby," Harris said.
About 35 homeless advocacy groups recently issued a statement calling the decision to clear the encampments "inhumane and ineffective."
"Until the city is able to provide appropriate housing and services to encampment residents, the undersigned service providers and advocates will not participate in any activities that further displace and disadvantage our homeless neighbors," the statement says. Among the groups signing on were the Homeless Persons Representation Project, Health Care for the Homeless and the House of Ruth Maryland.
The city has cleared several encampments in recent years, including last month's destruction of one under the U.S. 40 overpass at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in West Baltimore.
Advocates are demanding that the city create and implement an affordable-housing plan and improve access to emergency services for individuals and families, among other actions.
The Journey Home board also is studying how the city failed to distribute about 10 percent of its 650 housing vouchers for homeless individuals while continuing to raze the encampments.
twitter.com/yvonnewenger