baltimore housing

Verna Mae Peacock Cann, a retired social worker and church musician, died of congestive heart failure Aug. 27 at Sinai Hospital. The Parkton resident was 81.

Havre de Grace's city council laid out the three options it has in transforming its RAD loan program, as several business leaders urged council members Monday night to keep the program afloat.

As high prices, rising rents and tight credit requirements continue to make homeownership difficult for many families, some private and nonprofit developers are trying to find ways to make homeownership more accessible for renters.

Rescuing the children who come after McKenzie

A troubled Reservoir Hill property that came to be known as "Murder Mall" will be demolished under an agreement that's left some residents relieved, but others worried about where they'll go.

Hundreds more problem properties in Baltimore are finding new buyers as the city steps up the use of decades-old law designed to root out negligent owners.

Standing outside his tent pitched on the sidewalk by a defunct downtown diner on Thursday, Jimmy Steward III wonders where he'll sleep after city officials force him to leave this morning.

On Wednesday, 60 public housing residents and union workers stood outside the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to urge it to halt a plan to sell housing to private developers.

Baltimore Housing has launched a marketing campaign for a selected group of so called "eclectic" properties, in an effort to highlight the value hidden in the sea of roughly 1,000 vacants listed for sale.

Stephen Powers, an artist hired by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, recently painted the bright letters "FOREVER TOGETHER" and "I AM HERE BECAUSE IT'S HOME" on the 36 abandoned houses as a preview to a larger project he will be starting in the fall.

The roofs in the new development in Southeast Baltimore aren't all finished, and city officials aren't quite sure what to call it, but they turned out in force on Wednesday to celebrate the first apartments completed on land that once held the sprawling O'Donnell Heights public housing complex.

Jerry R. Engelman, a retired real estate broker who specialized in ground rents, died May 8 of heart failure at his Pikesville home. He was 70.

The city will hold its annual tax sale this month, in an effort to boost tax rolls, but some say it's a quick fix that contributes to one of the city's most entrenched problems — vacant properties.

HABC willing to work with residents and employees to smooth transition to private ownership

A plan to sell Baltimore's public housing high rises to private developers has left us residents concerned about guarantees of our rights, oversight of maintenance, loss of union jobs and the loss of our homes.

The $300,000 grant will allow for the demolition of the 14 vacant buildings along the shopping strip, but Brenda McKenzie, president of Baltimore Development Corp., said officials haven't decided which buildings will be razed and which will be preserved.

The city has started a $690,290 pilot program to take down 50 properties piece by piece, funding the extra labor costs by reselling the salvaged material.

One year ago, local activist group Housing Our Neighbors stood with the 14 residents of a tent city in the heart of downtown Baltimore and watched as a city bulldozer demolished tents that had housed people for years. This approach to homelessness and tent cities is both misguided and ineffective. We know what works to end this crisis: a model called "housing first," coupled with policies that increase the supply of affordable housing, health care, jobs and livable wages.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday he expects Baltimore to be a model for a new program, which will turn over thousands of units of public housing to private and nonprofit developers.

The Baltimore Housing Authority's plan to sell 22 of its 28 apartment and townhouse complexes drew dozens of concerned tenants and workers Wednesday to a City Council committee hearing.