Baltimore City Council pushing for new agency to combat vacant home crisis

BALTIMORE — Baltimore City Council members are pushing for a new agency to combat the city's vacant property crisis.

The city currently has more than 14,000 vacant properties, with nearly 800 located in the Carrolton Ridge neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore. 

On Friday, council members announced their intention to create a Land Bank Authority to tackle this crisis—which would be a first in Maryland.

 "This community has more vacant houses than any other in the City of Baltimore," Derwin Hannah, a resident of the area said.

 Council members gather on South Smallwood Street to discuss their plans for the authority on Friday.

"It's just not acceptable anymore to have residents tolerate having to live next to vacant properties," Odette Ramos, a Baltimore City Council member said.

The goal of the Land Bank Authority would be to acquire vacant properties and lots, and to then dispose of them in the most efficient way.  

"The acquisition and disposition is not working in Baltimore," so how do you address those blocks with 15 vacants and some occupied properties," Claudia Wilson Randall of the Community Development Network said.

Hannah went on to explain the importance of the Land Bank Authority.

"There's strength in numbers," Hannah said. "When you see all these houses occupied, people aren't going to tolerate all the stuff we're tolerating right now."

It is estimated that there are currently 200 Land Banks across the country. Baltimore City's would be a quasi-government agency which would leverage private capital in order to fund the rehabilitation of residential properties, many of which cost more than the market value of the property.

"We can't go and chug along at 200 or 300 properties a year," Randall said.