Mayoral candidates on the issues (Part 4): vacant properties

Mayor Brandon Scott is lauding efforts over the last three-plus years to reduce the number of vacant properties across Baltimore.

During his State of the City address in March, Scott touted a 14 percent reduction in vacants, bringing the city’s estimated total from more than 16,000 to around 13,500 — which he said was a 20-year low.

“I grew up dealing with the vacants in Baltimore. There was one on my block growing up,” he told Baltimore Fishbowl. “That’s a focus for us, and we’re going to continue to do the work”

With 13,510 remaining vacant properties across the city, according to a city Department of Housing and Community Development vacants dashboard, Baltimore’s next mayor will inherit a problem decades in the making — with neighborhoods blighted from the effects of the erosion of industrial jobs, redlining and block-busting, failed renewal efforts and more. Voters in the May primary will decide if Scott will continue his work to address the problem, or select from a crowded field of Democrats who may offer an alternative approach.

“I’m not going to go out there and tell people that I’m going to solve this issue myself solely in four years,” Scott said, “because so many issues that face Baltimore have faced Baltimore longer than I’ve been breathing oxygen.” 

In March, the mayor unveiled a fixed-price strategy for city-owned properties, allowing buyers to purchase some homes for as little as one dollar if they have the resources to invest at least $90,000 in renovation. The program is reminiscent of former Mayor William Donald Schaefer’s dollar-homes program in the 1970s.

The program “allows everyone that wants to be a part of this continuing renaissance of Baltimore to know what they have to do, how much they have to put in, and it allows us to streamline that process to go along with the strategy,” the mayor said. 

In December 2023, Scott unveiled an even more ambitious plan: a $3 billion strategy that would rely on city, state and private funds to tackle all remaining vacants over the next 15 years. The plan was crafted with the support of the Greater Baltimore Committee and Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD).

Scott’s administration pledged $300 million toward the plan, proposing legislation that would create a new Tax Increment Financing structure to steer some city tax dollars to redeveloping vacant homes.

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat running against Scott, said she’d work with the city council, community organizations like BUILD, and city agencies to streamline the processes for addressing vacant properties. 

She plans to be “very aggressive” in rolling out a land bank program, creating a quasi-public Neighborhood Redevelopment Authority tasked with acquiring, redeveloping and managing vacant properties across the city. A land bank program run by the authority would be more nimble than a city agency, but still accountable to the neighborhoods and communities in which it operates, according to her plan. The Neighborhood Redevelopment Authority would have representation from the government, nonprofit and private sectors.

For Dixon, demolishing vacants would also create opportunities for more green space and parks. She also identified areas with a blend of industrial and residential properties, in which she could see a renewed focus on economic development, targeting vacants to “clear away some of that to create some industrial space so we can attract businesses.” 

“Realistically, we’re going to have to take down a lot of those vacant properties because of the detriment that it has on their community and come up with an alternative plan for it,” she said. “We’ve lost property tax. We’ve lost population in the city, and this didn’t happen overnight, this is over 50 years. As people leave, we lose revenue in order to really stay on top of issues.”

Thiru Vignarajah, a Democratic candidate who has previously run for mayor and state’s attorney, released a five-point plan in March to address vacant properties in Baltimore. Vignarajah said he’d end tax sales for all owner-occupied properties and only use the process for “truly abandoned” properties. He’d also raise taxes on abandoned properties and direct the housing and community development department to seize properties with “excessive environmental citations” that pose a hazard to the community. 

“We’re going to take possession of them and hand them over to affordable housing organizations and small developers,” he said. 

Vinarajah also plans to reintroduce a dollar homes program, but he’d also target financing support for buyers. 

“In Baltimore today, because property values in these disinvested neighborhoods are so low, you can’t get a loan for the amount that you need to fix the house,” he said, adding that he would like to see Baltimore supplement banks as coinvestors and help dollar homebuyers finance needed property renovations. 

Under his plan, the city would also require renovations to be completed within two years, and to expedite the process, he’d make permitting and inspections faster and simpler for participants in the dollar-home program.

Vignarajah also aims at bringing seniors and former residents back to the city and “support and subsidize” developers that target seniors. 

Wendy Bozel, a Democrat running for mayor, said she’d develop a vacant properties task force. Owners of homes which have been vacant for longer than two years would be required to submit a plan to address the vacancy to this new agency. Failure to address vacancies would result in a doubling of property taxes, she said.  

“A lot of owners, they’re out of country, out of state,” she said. “If they feel they’re gonna have to pay double the amount of taxes…on this property, they might come up with some ideas of how to use it or sell it,” she said. 

Bozel, a Baltimore school teacher, said she’d eye revival of the dollar housing program as well, but she also wants to look at developing a program for residents on rental assistance to help them transition into home ownership and facilitate “generational wealth.”

“I view every problem as an opportunity, as an economic opportunity to create businesses and to create entrepreneurs. When I look at the vacant properties, I see an asset has been underutilized and underappreciated,” businessman Bob Wallace said. “I believe that we need a Marshall-type plan for Baltimore, to rebuild the communities in Baltimore that had been ignored and been forgotten.”

Wallace, who ran for Mayor in 2020 and lost to Scott, pointed to the U.S.-economic investment in the recovery of Western Europe following World War II, and said the city needed a “multi-billion dollar” redevelopment plan that matched that magnitude of the Marshall Plan. Wallace said the city should leverage vacant housing and property to draw in new businesses and hire from those neighborhoods in the rebuilding process.

Baltimore Fishbowl’s 2024 mayoral candidates issues coverage is including active candidates, defined as those with an active campaign website and who are receiving contributions into their campaign accounts.

Full mayoral campaign issues coverage:

Mayoral candidates on bicycle transportation

Mayoral candidates on supporting art

Mayoral candidates on the environment

Mayoral candidates on vacant properties

Mayoral candidates on recycling, trash collection and public works

Mayoral candidates on graffiti, dumping and cleanliness

Mayoral candidates on jobs and the economy

Mayoral candidates on large development projects and special tax treatment

Mayoral candidates on squeegee workers and youth recreation

Mayoral candidates on crime and public safety