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Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Friday that the city has reduced thousands of vacant properties over the last five years, which he said should ultimately help reduce the number of people who experience homelessness by keeping housing costs down by increasing supply.
鈥淎ffordability is number one for us in Baltimore,鈥� Scott said at a Friday panel at the Maryland Association of Counties鈥� summer conference. 鈥淏altimore, as we all know, has a ton of housing stock, but a large portion of that is unlivable, vacant housing throughout our city.鈥�
He reported that since he became mayor in December 2020, the city has reduced the number of vacant properties by about 3,500 units, after a period of more than 20 years when the number of vacant properties had not changed.
鈥淲e were at 16,000 vacant properties when I came into office. As of 20 minutes before we started today, we鈥檙e now down to 12,510,鈥� he said to applause from MACo attendees.
Improving housing stock and housing access was just one of the many potential solutions offered at a pair of housing events Friday at the conference in Ocean City. Scott was joined by members of state and local government as well as homeless advocates to discuss the challenges and potential solutions to homelessness.
鈥淧eople always tell you that homelessness is this simple thing to fix, and that you can take these cookie cutter approaches,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淣o 鈥� every single person experiencing homelessness needs a specific, tailored thing for them.鈥�
He said that investing in vacant housing efforts across the city, not just in downtown areas, will especially help underserved areas where people experience higher rates of poverty. He added that a partnership between the city, the Moore administration and private developers called Reframe Baltimore will bring in $3 billion over the next 15 years to eliminate vacant houses in the city.
But Scott assured the audience that there鈥檚 still work to be done.
Making progress, but challenges continue
Danielle Meister, assistant secretary of homeless solutions with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, said聽 there has been a 28% decrease in homelessness across the state since 2015.
There鈥檚 also been a 42% drop in unsheltered homelessness since 2015, she said. Meister attributes that drop to the state鈥檚 adoption of 鈥渉ousing first鈥� policies.
鈥淩ather than requiring people to first go through treatment or first get a job to kind of earn housing,鈥� she said, 鈥渨e really endorse and fiercely protect the idea that they should be connecting people rapidly to permanent housing with the supports to stay there successfully.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to get a job, it鈥檚 really hard to maintain sobriety if you don鈥檛 have a regular consistent place to live,鈥� she added.
But even with that progress, there are a few populations where state data shows 鈥渞eally concerning trends鈥� particularly with people aged 65 years and older and among families with children.
Meister said the number of homeless seniors doubled between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2024.
鈥淭he vast majority of the homeless system resources, they鈥檙e set up for people who can work and eventually, maybe, pay their own rent,鈥� Meister said. 鈥淢ost of our homeless system is not equipped to serve older adults who are on restricted income.鈥�
She added that there鈥檚 been a 鈥渂ig increase鈥� in families experiencing homelessness since the pandemic.
鈥淚t looks different than single adults, so what we鈥檙e going to start to focus on a little bit more is family homelessness,鈥� she said.
Meister said that looking at trends in state data on homelessness can help identify and target new solutions.
鈥淕enerally, our state has been really great at accelerating permanent, supportive housing growth, not so much on other housing interventions which is more often navigated to families.鈥�
Nick Rinehart, legislative analyst for the Howard County Council, asked the panel how officials can counter the stigma of homelessness to help push solutions in their jurisdictions.
鈥淲e鈥檙e elected to do the right thing, not the popular one,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淲e have to educate folks 鈥� but sometimes, they鈥檙e still going to be mad 鈥� so what?
鈥淲e have to be able to do what we know is right,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淲e just have to do the right thing no matter who gets mad.鈥�
