Baltimore homeless advocates demand seat at the table amid efforts to address housing crisis
BALTIMORE - A group of community homeless advocates and organizations say they want a seat at the table.
This comes a few weeks after the city purchased two hotels as an emergency shelter for those experiencing homelessness.
"Nobody wakes up and says I want to be homeless," said Rodney Moore, the executive director of Beyond Housing Solutions. "About 1597 people experience homelessness in Baltimore City on any given night."
Moore joined other community homeless advocates on Friday near the two hotel properties Baltimore City purchased to help shelter those experiencing homelessness.
Their goal: To let city leaders know they want a seat at the table.
"We look to work with them and be that support to the individuals as they come in. So we can identify the services, the resources, and the service providers to work with this population," said Christina Flowers, a homeless advocate and outreach consultant in Baltimore.
"We want to be stakeholders at the table to provide some insight, some clarity on what needs to be done to address homelessness," said Moore.
Advocates believe working alongside the city is the only way to truly address Baltimore's housing and homeless crisis.
"We speak from the experience of dealing with these encamped dwellers for more than a decade. For more than a decade, we have managed, we have housed, we have serviced," said Flowers. "We have advocated for this population to be housing first housing choice to be prioritized."
In February, Baltimore City finalized more than $18 million in total to acquire the Holiday Inn Express and the Sleep Inn and Suites along North Front and North Gay streets.
Baltimore city leaders said this is an effort to respond to the housing crisis and expand services to help the homeless.
Advocates argue, the city can't do this alone and they must work together.
"We must have the right intensive care and management laws in place so that the initiative will properly provide the wraparound services to the homeless," said Zulieka Baysmore, a homeless/mental health care advocate.
"We want to make sure to be a part of the solution. We want to make sure that some urgency is in place, when it comes to engaging when it comes to wraparound services, when it comes to helping this population not to be returning back to homelessness," said Flowers.
Their hope is to see more boots on the ground, the city and other service providers work together at the properties.
"I'm just trying to encourage the whole Baltimore community and the whole worldwide community for that matter. It is a pitch in to do what we can and let's just tackle this problem," said Rob Freeman with the United Veterans Coalition
WJZ did learn the City of Baltimore and the Mayor's Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) has arranged a series of community engagement sessions to increase transparency and community participation as the City seeks a non-profit organization to convert the two hotels into permanent supportive housing (PSH) units with services such as medical, mental health and workforce development support.
The city says developers, service providers, and community members are encouraged to participate as they review goals, address questions, and launch the solicitation process to identify potential applicants to re-develop and operate.
Those looking to participate can complete the online registration for one or more community engagement sessions. For questions or additional information, contact Edwin Peart at edwin@lesardevelopment.com.