Wednesday night, the city struck a deal to relocate to transitional housing the homeless Baltimoreans who had erected an encampment on the steps of City Hall. These residents of our city have a right to be angry with many generations of our leaders, and to have chosen a very public venue to voice that anger…
Baltimore, along with other parts of the nation, is confronting a housing crisis — not the crisis that a decade or so ago caused the collapse of home ownership and mortgage lending. This is a rental crisis. The rent affordability gap means that 25 percent of Maryland renters spend 50 percent or more of their household income on rent. In Baltimore City alone, some 150,000 cases are filed in rent court each year and approximately 7,000 families are evicted.
The community land trust model is an extremely attractive mechanism for maintaining and expanding the stock of affordable housing. Currently there are approximately 160 community land trusts operating in every region of the country.