Hundreds apply in first phase of Baltimore’s vacant housing program, but only 11 qualify

Vacant homes on E. Preston Street in Baltmore. Photo by Elijah Pittman.

The first phase of a Baltimore program that aims to resurrect vacant homes by selling them to prospective homeowners for $1 drew applications from 459 city residents – only 11 of  whom ended up qualifying.

The program had drawn a total of more than 1,400 applications by June 30, but many of those were from people who live outside the city, whose applications will not be processed until after those of city residents.

Still, city officials said they have been encouraged by the interest so far in the Fixed Pricing Program , called the “dollar buy” program by some, which continues to accept applications on a rolling basis.

“Do the numbers reflect what we thought? So, we’re very encouraged by the level of interest for primary residents, that’s what we prefer,” said Tammy Hawley, chief of strategic communications for the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

But Brian Sessions, a West Baltimore community organizer and advocate, says the initial numbers just reaffirm his fears that city residents will be frozen out and the program will wind up as a vehicle for gentrification.

“It opens the doors for gentrification and opens the doors for developers to come in and buy these properties for little to nothing,” Sessions said recently. “They’ll come in, they’ll fix up the properties, they might put high-rise apartments in some of the spaces because some of them are lots.”

The program is open to individuals, nonprofits and developers. Under the program, the city sells vacant homes and lots it owns to individuals and community groups for $1, with prices rising to $3,000 for developers. Applicants must show they have $90,000 available for renovations, they must renovate the property within a year and, for individual buyers, they must live in the property for another five.

The 459 city residents who applied by June 30 were part of a priority application and review period during which their applications were considered while others were set aside. Those others included 942 applicants who are not Baltimore residents. Of those, 365 are Maryland residents, 570 are from outside the state and seven are from outside the country.

The city started reviewing those applications July 1. Hawley said the department is working on launching a live tracking site for applications, which are accepted and approved on a rolling basis.

She attributed the low approval rate for city residents to a variety of factors. More than half were deemed incomplete, she said.

“Actually, 114 of the 459 city resident applications were applications that could be reviewed. The others were incomplete applications like, whatever they did, they didn’t fill out a complete application,” Hawley said.

“Some of the anecdotes that I heard were people were just sending in a picture of themselves as the applicant and just not really filling out the application correctly,” she said.

Of the 114 city applicants that could be reviewed, 74 were denied because they could not prove they had the required $90,000 for repairs. An additional 29 were denied in the first round because they either didn’t intend to use the house as a primary residence or they turned out to be developers or nonresidents in the round reserved for city applicants.

But Sessions noted that a lack of money was the reason for the bulk of the rejections, which he said will likely continue to exclude local residents.

“For residents in neighborhoods where the vacant homes are located, they’re way below the median income,” Sessions said.  “So the issue here is that they are not considering those who occupy these spaces and those who are to be invested in.”

Hawley insists that is not the case. She pointed to Charm City Roots, a similar program that is described as phase 2 of the Fixed Pricing Program.

Charm City Roots allows anyone with a “familial or legacy connection to a vacant property,” that is not city owned , to express an interest in buying it. If the city determines the vacant property is eligible for purchase, it goes about helping the resident get the property.

“We’ve had a strong level of applicants come in from that vantage point,” Hawley said. “Saying, ‘ABC address over here is a property that’s been vacant. Here’s my familial tie to this interest. I’d like to know if the city has a way of getting that property out of the hands of that private owner that’s left it sitting there vacant.'”

Charm City Roots program identifies more than 10,000 privately owned properties that residents might apply for. The city has about 300 vacant properties in the Fixed Pricing Program, according to the program’s portal. Those homes are concentrated in Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore like Park Heights, Penn-North, Sandtown Winchester and Harlem Park.

The number of homes in the “dollar buy” program fluctuates, as the city sells them off or secures more vacancies from private owners.

Hawley said that for those 11 applicants who made the first cut in the priority period, their applications will “go to a real estate officer to see about the financial sufficiency and whether they will move on to the Board of Estimates.”

Hawley said that while the city prefers primary residents in the homes, there is no “cookie cutter” solution to the vacancies.

“We aren’t going to close the door on others who have the resources to bring these properties back in productive use, which could be developers that want to develop multiple properties,” Hawley said. “Maybe they want to rent, maybe they want to sell. You know, every situation is different.”

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