Will Ama Tubman Weep No More?

Keynote Address at Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute 2024 Social Determinants of Health Symposium

Originally my remarks to you all were going to be about my entrance into the health and housing space way back in two thousand and two when I purchased a home in Heritage Crossing which used to be a public housing project in West Baltimore called Murphy Homes. But last friday during what is so typically Happy Hour for people, I met with a client of the Stop Oppressive Seizures Fund, we will call her Ama Tubman. This meeting rocked me to the core. 

The SOS Fund was formed in June 2020 during a door knocking campaign where myself and a couple of collaborators from Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service and Parity Homes were door knocking in Upton letting my neighbors know their homes were on the tax sale list. The fund works to prevent home and land seizures in the city through mutual aid, community education and political advocacy. It is because of that work that Ms.Tubman was referred to us. 

Ms. Tubman invited myself and the SOS Fund Program Director into her dining room to sit and discuss her situation. She is facing eviction from her home because of a 4 thousand dollar unpaid tax bill from 2019. As the world began to deal with COVID-19 Ms Tubman was dealing with a different illness that kept her going back and forth to the doctors trying to get better. She received a diagnosis and began the road to recovery the next year. By that time COVID 19 had shut the world down. 

So when she tried to get the Homeowner’s property tax credit she reached out to the local office of the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. They told her they would mail her an application which they never did. This credit would’ve reduced her bill to about one thousand dollars. Without the credit she pulled together money with the help of her now adult children to pay the bills as they were. She went down to the Abel Wolman building to make payments on the property taxes due. 

When she went to pay the bill no one informed her in a clear or timely manner that some unpaid property taxes had been sold to a third party. She was unaware that the unpaid debt had been turned into a lien and listed for sale for collection by a 3rd party. Sounds confusing right? It is.

She was allowed to pay the most current property taxes over the next four years to the tune of nearly 20,000 dollars which was described by city staff as a gift to the 3rd party debt collector. Because if the 3rd party moves to take the deed to her home that money will not be returned to her. She should have been told to pay the tax lien held by the 3rd party first. 

Tax sale is a complicated complex legal process that benefits the 3rd party debt collectors at every turn. They are allowed to charge up to 18% on the debt and if the debt goes unpaid they can foreclose on the home. Yes, the city gets a big check from the 3rd parties each year when the tax sale is held which is why they cling to this process for dear life. The city says they need the money to solve a cyclical cash flow problem. The resolution is temporary and its creates a much bigger expense in the long run.  As it is a driver of vacancy.  According to The Cost of Baltimore's Vacant report the city loses 100 million dollars a year in revenues alone as the result of vacancy.  

I digress, back to Ms. Tubman. She thought she had handled all of the taxes until she was contacted by the 3rd party’s attorney who was filing a foreclosure action on her home. The foreclosure was granted by the court despite the irregularities in this case. 

Even with all the stress she is experiencing, she invited us into her home to hear her story so we could strategize on a way to resolve the issue. She recounted to us what she has experienced over the last 4 years. And wept as she told us that she had done everything she could to make sure her property taxes were paid. This was the first time she had shared with anyone the full reality of what has been happening to her. 

Watching a 70 year old Black woman cry in her dining room about the impending loss of her home while battling a serious illness stoked the seething rage in my spirit. All of this harm because the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland are determined to sacrifice a Black woman on the altar of revenue collections for revenue and profit. They must be stopped. 

Ms. Tubman’s story is a common one, thousands of Baltimore homeowners mostly in Black neighborhoods face tax sale every year. This March more than 5000 homes had debts listed for tax sale. The Pro Bono Resource Center reports that clients of its 2023 tax sale clinics were 85% Black and Woman. And, according to the Baltimore Banner since 2016 “every one of the 1,763 homes across Baltimore '' that they were able to find  with a foreclosure due to tax sale was located in a majority-Black neighborhood. 

In order to pay the disproportionately high property taxes bills many people forgo buying food, filling prescriptions or making necessary home repairs which leaves them at risk for further adverse health outcomes. A home is more than where the heart is, it is where the health is. Housing sits firmly at the center of the Neighborhood and Built Environment determinant of health. It significantly impacts all the other determinants. 

How can you build wealth if you have no or inadequate home to pass on to the next generation as a house is most American’s greatest material asset? You cant. How can you learn to your fullest scholarly potential if you have to walk past 29 vacant properties on the way to sit in a classroom with no heat? You won’t. How can you stay healthy when there are no nutrient dense culturally appropriate food stores within walking distance to your home? You don’t.  How do you maintain bonds and relationships when your neighbors are pushed out of their homes by slum conditions, high rents, hyper policing and redevelopment? Exactly, the possibilities are shrinking daily as is the availability, accessibility and affordability of homes in Baltimore. 

What is growing is blight - concentrations of vacant, abandoned, dilapidated, underutilized and misutilized properties. Today, Baltimore has about 15,000 vacant buildings and 21,000 vacant lots according to the Department of Housing and Community Development. There are many more properties in poor condition, not being fully used or being used in ways that are harmful. The vast majority of these properties are homes in Black neighborhoods. 

How did we get to a place where Baltimore has so few houses that people can afford to live in and properties that support living?  It’s quite simple - in fact, racist housing, community and economic development policy has resulted in a blighted Baltimore. Its bigger than Redlining which typically is named as the culprit. Its: 

• Enslavement which robbed Africans of their homes from the outset

• Black codes - In 1867 the MD Occupational Acts prohibited Black people from owning carts or drays an early form of mobile housing and food distribution, 

• Public School development -  Samuel Coleridge Taylor Elementary wasn't opened till 1926 so there was a failure to build a single public school for Black children for 59 years after the first municipal funding was allocated to do so  

• Property tax policy - The creation of  tax sale by the state in the 1880’s. Many southern states passed tax sale laws after the end of Reconstruction. It is one of the main ways the 16 million acres of land in Black ownership at the dawn of the 20th century was reduced to less than 5 million acres by dusk of it.  

• Real estate laws - City Ordinance 610 passed in 1910 as the first housing segregation policy in the US and then the restrictive covenants that followed behind designed to keep Black people in poorly planned neighborhoods and poorly constructed housing 

• Highway construction - 1-83 which displaced Black families in Cross Keys, I-395 which displaced Black families in Sharp-Leadhall and I-170 the infamous Highway to Nowhere which displaced 900 families from Harlem Park and Poppleton.

• Urban Renewal - The construction of One Charles Plaza, The Morris Mechanic Theater and Harborplace which diverted public dollars to built enterprise for private interests instead of investing in neighborhoods with Black populations 

• Non profit expansion-  About 30% of Baltimore’s real estate is not taxable because it is owned by non profits, and that number is likely growing as institutions like JHH are displacing countless Black families. Its gobbling up properties to expand its footprint tax free all while using Black people and communities as labs  

I could go on and on. But I think you can see how the development of racist policy in Baltimore over time causes blight. That leaves us to ask the two most important questions: what impact this is having on people today and what is being done about it? 

The quest to answer those questions caused me to birth Fight Blight Bmore in 2016 - as a social, environmental and economic justice movement led by the village and informed by the data to address blight through community leadership, advocacy and ownership. The work centers resistance, repair and reclamation. 

The harms of blight are many - it reduces educational access, employment and enterprise opportunity, home equity and tax revenues, etc…Most important are the health impacts. Blight can quite literally kill you. 

• On any given day in Baltimore there are thousands of people experiencing some form of housing insecurity. People who are housing insecure are 3 to 4 times more timely to die prematurely.  

• In 21223 vacant lots were shown to contribute to ER visits for Asthma at rate 3 times higher than the statewide average

• In Madison/East End 7.5% of the children tested had elevated blood lead levels - the highest in the city while also being in the top ten neighborhoods with housing code violations at 7.3% in 2018

• And, in 2022 we calculated that more than 50% of homicides happened with 100ft of a property that was vacant or tax delinquent  

So there is no wonder why the life expectancy in Garwyn Oaks where Ms Tubman lives is 10 years less than in Cross Country which has the highest life expectancy in the city and some of the lowest blight right. The instability of housing and the condition of neighborhoods is harming people's health. (BNIA Vital Signs, 2018) And, as we heard this morning residents and leaders alike that respondents to the Community Health Needs Assessment lifted up housing as a clear need for improving human health. 

We can see the impact clearly. The answer to the second question is that people are organizing to address blight. The community’s resistance, repair and reclamation effort includes: 

Baltimore Renter’s United is a tenant-led movement to ensure people have safe, stable, affordable, and fair housing free from exploitation. They worked to shepard the Inclusionary Housing legislation through city council last year which is designed to increase the number of housing units available for people making at or below 80% of Area Median Income 

Black Yield is creating a hyper local food production, preparation and distribution economy in Cherry Hill on vacant land to address food apartheid. In 2023 they distributed 10,282 pounds of food in Monte Claire and Cherry Hill 

Parity Homes is developing homeownership cohorts in Harlem Park that turn dilapidated houses into affordable housing units both homeownership and rental - 20+ units to be completed by end of year, 40+ people completed cohort training and 600 people on the waiting list many of who are Baltimore born and raised. 

And, CARE community association is executing a mutual aid program to pay 11,000 in property taxes to keep 10 of their neighbors out of tax sale, get estate plans in place and do home repairs to enable aging in place in the McElderry Park area. This is their 3rd year conducting a tax sale bailout.   

Fight Blight Bmore and the SOS Fund collaborates with each of these organizations to share in the work of unblighting Baltimore. But even with all that work happening Ms. Tubman and many others are fighting against home loss and for their health. The end of the story is not yet written. Through these collaborations I channel my rage into acts of resistance against the loss of Ms. Tubman home but more importantly repair of her health and wellness. 

Being here today with you all engaging in this critical dialogue about Neighborhood’s and the Build environment as a social determinant of health is great. Let’s take the next steps toward ending tax sale as a harm to housing and health together. We can 

• learn more about this predatory policy

• donate to mutual aid efforts, 

• investigate how medicaid or medicare can be used to pay disabled and elderly homeowners property taxes 

• examine the data and produce analysis that doesn't pathologize the ways people survive and thrive in blighted places,

• join the policy advocacy for property tax payment plans, tax credit expansion, heirs property support and home repair efforts 

• Work to stop speculation, flipping and all market based solutions for redevelopment. Instead supporting redevelopment that focus on the need of everyday people for housing and vibrant neighborhoods

Our actions in collaboration in the days and weeks to come will determine if Ms. Tubman weeps no more. Thank you.

The Anatomy of Baltimore’s Blight: Analysis of Policy and Practice Creating a Pathway for Community Progress

Click here to read the final The Anatomy of Baltimore’s Blight: Analysis of Policy and Practice Creating a Pathway for Community Progress. It aims to provide an examination of how residents and communities prioritize and address property issues, and what tools (policies, practices, funding, etc.) are needed to execute their work toward blight remediation more comprehensively.

VBNs, Tax Sale, and Homicides

In 2023 Fight Blight Bmore conducted a manual accounting of locations where homicide occurred in Baltimore, it found that in 2022 more than 50% of Baltimore’s 335 murders took place near a property that had a Vacant Building Notice (VBN), Tax Lien Certificate or it was a vacant lot.

With the goal of exploring the relationship in Baltimore between the presence of properties with vacant building notices, properties whose liens were auctioned as part of the tax sale, and the number of homicides in the vicinity —Fight Blight Bmore conducted a more in depth analysis. This analysis found that, “there is a strong correlation between the presence of vacant building notices and tax sale properties with homicides committed on that Block. This impact is especially clear with higher numbers of VBNs and tax sale properties.” The full analysis can be viewed here.

Floating All Boats: An Opinion on The Dollar House Program Reboot

Recently, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby released a housing package including a reboot of the 1970’s Dollar House program (The Urban Homestead Demonstration program). Baltimore was one of the cities selected for the initial pilot by the federal government to offer houses for sale for a dollar along with funds and a process for rehabilitation. The participating cities had to develop a framework for the program based on the availability of houses, the “market”, and purchaser interest. Baltimore initially selected clusters of properties in Barre Circle, Otterbein, and Stirling Street. According to Baltimore’s Brick Walls: An Observation Of Baltimore’s Dollar House Program (2015), the houses offered for sale were “ from the tax-delinquent properties and other properties acquired by the city…”(60). The location of Barre Circle and Otterbein seem to indicate the city had previously acquired those homes as a part of road construction or other planned Urban Renewal Projects.  

The Dollar House program intended “..to help stimulate interest to those who could afford it back into the city with the aid of low-interest loans, assisting them in homeownership within failing areas of a city..”( Baltimore’s Brick Walls, 7). It is seen as a successful housing program. So much so there have been calls for several decades to bring it back. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake responded to these calls by creating the “Vacants to Value” program, which followed the Project SCOPE and Project 5000 programs. One of the reasons that Vacants To Value (V2V) does not share the “success” of the Dollar House program for individuals is because it did not come with the same federal funding nor programatic support. V2V also seems to be designed for developers, not people interested in buying a home in Baltimore to live in. In fact, more than half of the V2V settlements in the last decade were small or non-profit developers. Due to failures of programs like Project 5000, SCOPE, V2V and the unabated racism in real property laws and private sector policies (inflated tax assessments, tax sale, subprime lending, disinvestment, etc…) Baltimore is a city where more than 50% of renters are “housing insecure”, paying 30% or more of their income in housing cost (The Double Crisis, 2) and the loss of more than 2000 low to moderately affordable housing units since the late 1990’s is an “acceptable” price to pay for new development (The Abell Report, 2007).

Cover of Baltimore’s Brick Walls

In response to falling Black homeownership numbers and increased housing insecurity due to the economic pressure exacerbated by COVID 19, Council President Mosby is proposing to use $200 million of the $600+ million in American Rescue Act funds Baltimore is slated to receive to bring back the Dollar House program as the Baltimore City Urban Homesteading Program as well as launch a Baltimore City Home Repairs Grant Program and Baltimore City Senior Homeowners Grant Program. 

Ad for Interview with Council President Mosby on the Dollar House Program

Upon reviewing the proposed legislation and listening to Council President Mosby’s interview with Madison Mason, there are four main issues with this legislation that must be addressed: 

1. The eligibility criteria for the programs don’t match with the residents the bill states redress should be given because of racist policies. 

Suggested solution: Instead of solely using the “Legacy Resident” and income criteria, eligibility should also require:

1. Resident has experienced a displacement resulting from mortgage, reverse mortgage, tax sale, ground rent foreclosure, lease or contract loan eviction, eminent domain or condemnation action since age 18, or

2. Resident has interest in an heirs property with a tangled title or unresolved estate administration action 

2. There isn't enough specificity to ensure that the houses made available through this program will be affordable to those residents that Council President Mosby states the Dollar House Program is designed to help. 

Suggested solution: The houses made available should be those with a total renovation cost of $175,000 or less. 

3. The definition of “Designated Impact Investment Neighborhoods” puts the focus on developing around “assets” and “revitalization efforts” for investors not based on community needs. 

Suggested solution: The neighborhood eligibility should be any neighborhood that was redlined (or yellow lined) and meets any three or more of the following criteria: 

1. Vacancy rate of 15% or more 

2. Residential Tax Lien Certificates Sales 10% or more 

3. SDAT Neighborhood Subset has more than 50% rental housing (thus neighborhood classed as Rental Dwelling)

4. Lost 500 or more public housing units since 1990

5. Number of Demolition Permits greater than 20 for each 1000 residential units

6. Median Price of Houses sold $75,000 or less 

7. Affordability Index of greater than 30%

4. The ability of participants to find lenders to provide quality mortgages will be key to their ability to access the grant. 

Suggested solution: Identify a set of local banks and lenders with a demonstrated practice of equitable mortgage lending to act as preferred lenders for this program who will provide low interest and cost loans to participants that include a forgivable booster grant of between $25,000 (for renovations of $125,000 or less) and $50,000 (for renovations above $125,000).    

There are a few other concerns with these bills. For instance there are programs like LIGHT and HUBS that could be expanded instead of recreated by the proposed Home Repair Grant program. And, why is the Senior Home Owners Grant program limited to 5k in funding for each participant? Also, why can’t a Senior homeowner redeem their home’s Ground Rent as a part of this program? 

As written these bills offer an opportunity to “lift all boats” but in reality the people in canoes, dinghies or floating in the water on their backs will be drowned by the rising waters created. There are ways as suggested (and many more) to make these bills more than an opportunity, but to provide repair of the damage done historically. 

We acknowledge that the legacy and current realities of racism in housing and community development law, policy and practice can’t be addressed by one program with a 200 million dollar budget so we have begun to organize and mobilize to develop a policy platform for reparations for Black Land Ownership and Sovereignty. An initial version can be viewed here.

Further, we propose a Single Payer Rehab Program. This program aims to provide a regenerative and sustainable option for equitable housing redevelopment in Baltimore. To learn more feel free to review the 4Points Comparison on Single Payer Rehab program, click here. Feel free to leave comment in the document, we would like to hear from interested parties.

"Dis-placia: Vacants in the Village”

"Dis-placia: Vacants in the Village" is more than just a documentary—it's a powerful exposé that peels back the layers of systemic injustice shaping the landscape of American cities. This film dives deep into the heart of Baltimore, uncovering a truth often hidden in plain sight: the pervasive blight in Black communities is not a mere accident, but a calculated act of economic violence driven by policy and power.

This gripping documentary takes viewers on a journey through the abandoned, decaying streets of Baltimore, revealing how blight is wielded like a weapon to disenfranchise and displace. Through poignant interviews with community activists, organizers, and residents who refuse to be silenced, "Dis-placia" sheds light on the untold stories of resistance and resilience against a backdrop of strategic disinvestment and devaluation.

"Dis-placia: Vacants in the Village" is not just a film—it's a call to action. It's a searing critique of the policies that have left Black neighborhoods in ruins, and a celebration of the people who fight every day to reclaim their communities, their homes, and their dignity.

This documentary is a must-watch for anyone who cares about social justice, urban renewal, and the fight for equity. It’s an eye-opening experience that will leave viewers questioning the real causes behind urban decay and inspired by the grassroots efforts to rebuild and restore. With the growing interest in social and racial justice content on streaming platforms, "Dis-placia" is poised to resonate with audiences globally, sparking conversations and inspiring change.

Join us in spreading the word. Stand with the fighters. Witness the truth. "Dis-placia: Vacants in the Village" is coming soon to a screen near you—because the time for awareness and action is now.

End Legalized Theft of Black Owned Land (published on Afro.com on 7/23/2020)

In America Black people are no strangers to the erosion of property rights or the theft of land. Our experience as property certainly bloodies the water. Even still we have used our agricultural acumen, innovative genius and cooperative practice to become property owners from the antebellum period until today. In fact by 1910 Black Americans had acquired 15 million acres of land much of it in the rural south.

Today, Black America owns roughly two million acres. The land was lost by various means including forced expulsion, abandonment, foreclosure, etc. The impact of these losses was magnified by obstacles to property acquisition such as discriminatory zoning, restrictive covenants, redlining, etc., a dominant practice in the urban north. All along the way property tax disparities have been used to take properties away from Black owners.

The erosion starts with property assessments. For example in Green County, Georgia in the 1930’s it was found that Black landowners were paying “far more” in property taxes than comparable properties owned by whites. In 1the 1972 a HUD study found largely Black East Baltimore (labeled as blighted) had 10 times the property tax burden of largely white Bolton Hill (labeled as upwardly transitional); a reporter for the Afro commented ”

Many a colored buyer has had the sad experience of having tax assessment upped, not lowered, when he moved in.”. This is perplexing considering that the Brookings Institute found that homes in predominantly black neighborhoods are appraised and valued 23% lower than comparable white neighborhoods, despite all else being equal. The compound effects of depressed housing values from historic race-based disinvestment and a disproportionate tax burden continue to plague Baltimore’s Black Butterfly.

Higher assessments result in higher property tax bills. And for a segment of Baltimore’s population that is hovering at the poverty line and on fixed incomes, even a small increase in property taxes can push a household further into financial distress and a neighborhood deeper into erosion. In Baltimore unpaid property taxes (and other municipal debts) are auctioned off annually. The Tax sale earns the city upwards of 20 million dollars each year. For those buying the tax certificate debts the “certificate purchasers” receive the right to collect the debt plus 12-18% interest on the debt, lawyers fees, lien releases, etc. If the property owner isn't able to navigate the unduly complicated process and pay the debt plus accumulated fees and interest, the “certificate purchaser” can file for foreclosure on the owner’s right to redeem the property from 9 months to 2 years after the tax sale. After the filing, if the debt isn't paid the court can issue a judgment which effectively gives title to the certificate holder who can then evict the previous owner, sell the property to another speculative investor, or even rent it back to the previous owner. All while not taking official title to the property or paying property taxes on it.

At this point the erosion of Black property rights is complete, the home’s equity is no longer accessible. It’s maddening to think of the millions of dollars in equity lost to Black homeowners in Baltimore to tax sales. The true number of people impacted by this policy and practice is difficult to calculate. Data from the district court on Tax Sale Foreclosures isn't readily available.

Tax Certificate Foreclosure Filings in 2018 (Data and Image Courtesy of Baltimore Open Land Data)

In a process that is fraught with inequities;’ from the use of Gross Income calculation to determine assessed values which no one at Baltimore City SDAT was able to sufficiently explained to me, or the fact that the “certificate purchaser”, lawyer representing the “certificate purchaser” and a company that lends money to homeowners to pay “certificates purchasers” can all be the same entity with no disclosure required.

The impact is clear in this year’s tax sale held just two days ago (despite a request from advocates to the Mayor to cancel the tax sale for this year given COVID-19). Most of the Community Statistical Areas with the high tax sales ratios are those with concentrations of blight and predominantly Black populations like Sandtown- Winchester and Harlem Park. In Greater Rosemont where the population is 97% Black nearly 100 owner occupied properties were scheduled to go to auction this year.

Total Properties (scheduled and removed) with Tax Certificates Advertised For Sale in 2020 (Data Courtesy of Bid Baltimore and Image Courtesy of Eli Pousson)

What can be done besides “BURN IT ALL DOWN”? First, BREATHE! Second, work to help homeowners with properties in tax sale get them out.

If you or someone you know has a property in tax sale, contact Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service My Home, My Legacy, My Deed program to register for the upcoming virtual legal clinic August 18th at from 3 pm-7pm. This program is assisting in the ongoing struggle facing our legacy homeowners as they fight to protect their home from predatory lien purchasers, a dysfunctional city government, and decades of economic disinvestment.

If you or someone you know wants to give funds to get homeowners out of tax sale, donate to the Stop Oppressive Seizures (SOS Fund)*. There are two homeowner’s in the pipeline in need of help today!

Third, work to have the tax sale abolished for owner occupied or rented homes. Instead Baltimore should adopt a payment plan like Philadelphia. Bree Jones, founder of Parity Homes, an equitable development company, says “...it’s imperative to protect legacy residents in Baltimore’s Black Butterfly from inadvertent displacement caused by rising property taxes from redevelopment and reinvestment. Our elders and other legacy members have been the stewards of this land and community, however the annual tax sale continues to pose a risk to the destabilization of homeownership and Black wealth building in East and West Baltimore”. I concur.

* Fusion Partnerships is the fiscal sponsor for Fight Blight Bmore’s non profit programing. All donations are tax deductible.

Testimony for City Council Bill 21-0037R

"You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions." This quote by Sven Lindqvist in "Exterminate All the Brutes' sums up the necessity for City Council Bill 21-0037R - an Informational Hearing for Studying Options to Rid Baltimore City of Vacant Properties. Its stated aim is "to discuss the feasibility of certain specific recommendations to more efficiently and rapidly improve the ability of Baltimore City to remedy vacant dwellings." What is known? City government laws, policies, and practices together with those of the state and the federal government from ground rent to Ordinance 610 to restrictive covenants to tax sale collections to disinvesting in Black neighborhoods to over funding the police while underfunding schools are major contributors to the vacancies in Baltimore. Any effort to address vacancy that doesn't aim to repair the damage done to those residents and communities victimized by the city's actions will neither be equitable, just, or sustainable. What is understood? The time for wrapping smallpox-soaked bandages on burn victims never existed. Yet, that is what the city has been doing in the Black Butterfly to cover up its participation in making our villages vacant to facilitate poverty profiteering and Neo Urban Colonialism. The scope and scale of vacancy in the city, which is just one form of blight that we are facing, will not be fixed with more of the same "punitive" measures that will never be fully applied to those who have conspired with local, state and the federal government to displace Black communities, for now, a third time: first out of Africa, second out of the deep south and now out of the city. 

Where is the courage to draw conclusions? Right here, recommendations to address the city's ability to remedy vacant properties require centering healing the people, communities and institutions harmed. Focusing on efficiency and speed measures alone will not do as we know those measures are rooted in plantation economics. The following recommendations for improving the city's ability to address the vacancy problem centers the health and wellness of communities without regard for respectability politics, harm reduction and repair, land sovereignty, food/water justice, housing security, and sustainability: 

Land Sovereignty

• Create a Baltimore Neighborhood Reparations fund and Social Equity Bond to support the development of housing, enterprise, infrastructure, and institutions

• Create an Independent Condemnations and Demolitions Monitor

• Publish a clear and concise set of procedures to apply for and receive city-owned properties for equitable and sustainable development

• Create a program to support Co-Housing, Collaborative Workspace, and Cooperative development, including but not limited to cooperative grocery stores and worker-owned cooperative ventures.

• Create a program to enable and support Black-owned retail, agribusiness, commercial, and industrial competent spaces

• Advocate for an equitable property tax assessment and assessment process

• Create participatory funding and payment processes for real estate development 

• Create a Ground Rent Redemption grant and ground rent map

• Create and apply a measure to balance nonprofit property tax exemption against lost property tax revenues

Water & Food Justice 

• Ensure every property with metered water is receiving an accurate bill and develop a dispute resolution unit

• Implement a city-wide food and nutrition scan in healthy food priority areas (communities experiencing food apartheid within the Black Butterfly) every three to five years

• Develop and implement a goal for 5% of food needs grown within Baltimore for Black Butterfly

• Create a path to ownership for Adopt A Lot licensees (participants) who live in the footprint of the lots

 Housing Security 

• Support an appraisal gap tax credit focused on redlined communities

• Abolish tax sale of owner-occupied units and enable installment payment plans.

• Ramp up the "in-rem" foreclosure process — foreclosures that focus on vacant tax sale properties — using a new land bank for equitable distribution

• Fully implement state enabled waiver of estate administration fees for low-income households

• Reform the Side Lot program by streamlining the process and only applying the 10-year building restriction to owners not residing in the community

• Implement a program to ensure all eligible homeowners are receiving all eligible property tax credits, including but not limited to the Homeowner's Tax Credit , Homestead Tax Credit, and the Urban Agriculture Tax Credit

• Remove barriers to accessing housing, i.e., security deposits, by enacting policy to set security deposits based on income and creates a Security Deposit Grant Program

Enterprise Development & Sustainment

• Revamp the food retail strategy to include a specialized focus on Black Butterfly communities providing technical assistance and funding to support community-owned and controlled supermarkets and small retail shops

• Create a pipeline with low and safe entry standards. for local producers through city fresh, value-added, and prepared food procurement programs, including but not limited to City Schools, Health Department

• Create incentives for agencies, schools, and organizations with city contracts to procure local food

• Overhaul of current programs for urban agriculture, like Homegrown Baltimore, and advance a land disposition process that prioritizes farmers' land acquisition

• Develop a policy to return funds (call-back clauses and CBAs) on failed developments using taxpayer dollars

• A policy with DPW creating an Agriculture Water Customer, a separate protected customer category for agricultural use of municipal water (affordable rate)

• Revamp the Urban Agriculture Tax Credit to benefit farmers

This list of recommended policies, programs, and practices to address vacancy is holistic and innovative. Taking this integrated approach to addressing vacancy will disrupt the pattern of city actions that produces little change while often creating or worsening complex and compound trauma experienced living in neighborhoods with concentrations of vacancy or blight.  

For example, if a vacancy tax is enacted, it must include an "heirs exemption." The exemption would cover an heir's properties and those with tangled titles. It will protect generational wealth transfer and community continuity while allowing the legislation to address vacancy and blight supported by speculators and predatory investors. 

I know there are those listening who only care about the numbers. Those folks should consider that more than 80 million in revenue to the city is lost annually indirect cost of vacancy and lost property tax revenues. There are millions more spent in indirect costs like 84 million dollars collected by local hospitals from 2013-2015 for treating asthma cases 3x the state average in neighborhoods with vacancy rates of 30% or more. Vacancies are bad for the city's bottom line, for real, for real. It's time to dismantle the structures and systems that support and enable vacancy. These recommendations are a platform for starting. 

Prepared By: 

Nneka Nnamdi, Fight Blight Bmore 

For the Stop Oppressive Seizures Fund