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never lost faith that she would be able to save her home at 319 North Carrollton Ave. in the Poppleton neighborhood of West Baltimore.
Like they have done to many predominantly-Black neighborhoods, developers have targeted Poppleton for years. Over the past decade, the to evict residents and raze their houses, resulting in the displacement of longtime residents.
But last year, Eaddy, who is a third-generation resident of Poppleton, was able to mobilize a citywide coalition that staged , packed public hearings, and collected over 5,000 to save homes like hers from destruction. Even after most of Eaddy鈥檚 neighbors were forced out of their homes, after surrounding blocks were demolished, and after she exhausted legal appeals, she never stopped fighting.
In July 2022, her activism paid off when the city to allow Eaddy to stay in her home. But she says it鈥檚 hard to call that a victory until her neighbors who were displaced have an opportunity to return. 鈥淲e are continually working to help bring back those who were displaced,鈥� she says.
As part of the deal the city reached with stakeholders, some residents may have the opportunity to return to their homes. Eleven historic alley houses鈥攚hich are small homes typically occupied by African Americans or immigrant laborers鈥攐n the 1100 block of , located next to Eaddy鈥檚, will be renovated for homeownership in preparation for displaced former residents.
The group tasked with the renovation project is , a homeownership and wealth-building initiative that trains Black women in carpentry home restoration by rehabbing some of the vacant and deteriorated houses in the city.
Black Women Build is one part of a larger ecosystem of grassroots groups addressing the racial and economic disparities created and perpetuated by unjust housing policy in Baltimore. Other efforts, working in tandem to strive for justice in housing, include housing associations, the city鈥檚 affordable housing trust fund, a blight-fighting social justice group, and an equitable development company that restores abandoned homes to increase affordable housing stock.
On a rainy mid-October afternoon in Baltimore, Maryland, four dozen residents, housing advocates, and lawmakers rallied in the heart of the city鈥檚 business district. Their demand to officials was to stop subsidizing wealthy developers at the expense of the city鈥檚 long-neglected Black, working-class communities.
Towering high-rise office buildings, swanky hotels, high-priced condos, and the Inner Harbor, a major tourist attraction, served as a backdrop for the press conference that laid bare the city鈥檚 economic and racial disparities.
鈥淭he city is becoming unaffordable and unattainable to low- and moderate-income families,鈥� said Char McCready at the rally. McCready is executive director of (CPHA), which trains tenant organizers to advocate for progressive housing policies. Like Black Women Build, CPHA forms a critical part of the housing justice ecosystem.
Officials have long sought to the creation of affordable housing by offering tax breaks to the real estate sector. But developers are raking in millions of dollars in credits and subsidies, while loopholes allow them to largely building housing that is affordable for the city鈥檚 majority-Black working people.
鈥淲e feel these tax credits may be used to support segregation and encourage gentrification and displacement of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of color] communities,鈥� said McCready.
Developers in wealthy areas have received a number of tax breaks compared with low-income ones, building 6,600 luxury apartments over the past 15 years, only of which were affordably priced.
At the rally in Baltimore, McCready stood in front of , a 44-story high-rise luxury apartment building dubbed the tallest residential building in the state. She called it 鈥渁n example of one of the luxury apartment buildings we speak of,鈥� explaining it was 鈥渨hy we chose this location.鈥�
, the company that developed 414 Light Street, received a $3 million tax credit from the city to build affordable housing, but officials say the company has yet to market a single unit of housing at an affordable price.
Speakers at the rally argued that if the city can provide subsidies to the wealthy, it can do more to empower communities struggling to overcome poverty amid rising rents for housing, which remains in short supply. A 2016 found that 鈥渕ore than half of Baltimore renters live in housing they cannot afford.鈥� City rents have increased since the start of the pandemic.
At the time this article was written, apartments at 414 Light Street were priced starting at for a one-bedroom鈥攁 price Baltimore City resident and housing activist Tisha Guthrie says is unaffordable for her neighbors, and she surmised the company鈥檚 employees would also not be able to afford living there.
Guthrie also says that less than a mile away, in her neighborhood of , the community faces crumbling infrastructure, a lack of basic services, and deep poverty. She鈥檚 been a longtime supporter of residents like Eaddy鈥檚 fight to save their homes from demolition. And she鈥檚 advocated for the city to undertake community-guided investment in those communities instead.
As a commissioner of , Guthrie helps oversee an annual city fund of $20 million to promote affordable housing through such projects as community land trusts. As YES! previously reported, the commission was created and funded as a result of a decade of sustained activism and grassroots pressure.
Guthrie has also been working to support her neighbors in Poppleton鈥攍ike Eaddy鈥攊n their long-standing fight against displacement.
Poppleton is situated between downtown Baltimore and the infamous 鈥�,鈥� an urban renewal program that tore a wide swath through the area and displaced 1,500 predominantly Black residents, before being abandoned in the 1970s.
The city has a long history of implementing such policies. In 1910, Baltimore mandated racial segregation. Over the following decades, officials supported 鈥渦rban renewal鈥� and exploitative housing practices that destabilized neighborhoods, decreased Black homeownership rates, fueled a massive racial wealth gap, and concentrated working-class Black communities in slum-like housing.
The harm caused by such policies is incalculable, says Guthrie. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not gentrification, it鈥檚 just a complete dismantling.鈥�
Last year, activists painted a viewable from the Highway to Nowhere that quotes Sonia Eaddy. 鈥淟osing my home is like death to me,鈥� it reads. 鈥淓minent Domain law is violent.鈥�
As part of her longtime opposition to the development project, Eaddy helped create , an alternative vision for her neighborhood developed in collaboration with other longtime community members and a city planner. It aimed to preserve the character of the neighborhood and prioritize the needs of the community, but policymakers ignored it.
Instead, the city used eminent domain to relocate longtime residents and bulldoze several city blocks. Today, the project remains unfinished, and the neighborhood is littered with the remnants of the demolished buildings.
The Federal Reserve close to 4 in 10 Baltimore residents are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. This is taken as an indicator that they may have trouble affording food, clothing, transportation, and medical care. A 2021 found the median net worth for Black households in Baltimore was $0, compared with $59,430 for whites.
the housing crisis across the U.S. has destabilized communities and furthered cycles of violence. 鈥淲e found that at least 50% of the homicides that have occurred up until August occurred within 100 feet of a property with a vacant building notice,鈥� says Nneka N鈥檔amdi of . Yet the city鈥檚 spending on its police department far its spending on housing and other social services.
Just across the Highway to Nowhere, , an equitable development company, is rehabbing three properties that will be available to purchase or rent for legacy residents at an affordable price in spring 2023.
The organization works to address the concerns of the community by listening to their needs. 鈥淲e really just try to think about all the ways in which people could inadvertently be pushed out of the neighborhood as it gets revitalized, and we try to mitigate that as much as possible,鈥� says Parity Homes founder Bree Jones. Jones has been a vocal supporter of Poppleton鈥檚 residents.
One key part of its work is supporting wealth creation through homeownership. 鈥淲e integrate wealth through homeownership for Black folks in particular, who have been excluded from that for decades,鈥� Jones says.
Jones and N鈥檔amdi are part of a coalition working to end the practice of . If property owners fall behind on their taxes, the city auctions off the right to collect that debt for pennies on the dollar to debt collectors. In 2020, over 1,000 residents lost their homes for what can amount to a few hundred dollars in unpaid property taxes.
The group raised money to purchase the debt of some of the homeowners. Jones explains, 鈥淲e鈥檝e paid off the debts of close to 100 homeowners across the city who are at risk of losing their homes.鈥�
In the absence of a response from authorities on a scale that will address the problem, Jones remains optimistic that it will be possible, with time, to create and develop an adequate supply of housing that does not cause displacement.
鈥淲e think that you can both revitalize the neighborhood and keep legacy residents in that neighborhood.鈥�
This story is part of Building the Block, an original YES! series supported by a grant from the , which encourages the development of burgeoning alternative economies and fresh social contracts in ways that can help artists and cultural communities achieve financial freedom. Reporting and production of this story was funded by this grant, but YES! maintains full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy.
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Jaisal Noor
is an independent journalist and educator based in Baltimore. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Real News Network, Democracy Now, The Atlantic, Bolts Magazine, The Progressive, and the Baltimore Beat. He's Democracy Cohort Manager at Solutions Journalism Network.
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