Gov. Wes Moore announced who will receive $50 million in grant awards to help reduce the number of vacant properties in Baltimore City.
These grants are through the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative (BVRI), a program that helps redevelop vacant properties.
Awardees include Baltimore Redlining and Blight Elimination CDC, Coppin Heights CDC, Park Heights Rennaisance, South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, and many other groups and community organizations.
Moore also announced a new Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative Support Fund, which has collected more than $1 million from philanthropists to award funds for technical assistance.
Last year, the Moore-Miller administration created Reinvest Baltimore last year to address vacant property issues in Baltimore City.
“For this to be Maryland’s decade, it has to be Baltimore’s time,” Moore said in a statement. “We know that if we want to drive investment and growth in Baltimore City, we need to address its vacant housing crisis. And the future of these properties will be written in coordination with local leaders – because those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. Together, we will build a more vibrant, prosperous, and growing Baltimore for all.”
The governor’s announcement comes just three months after award applications opened on April 2, which is significantly faster than the typical timeline of six months. Through the Reinvest Baltimore strategy, the administration is aiming to transform at least 5,000 vacant properties into homeownership or other positive results through Fiscal Year 2029.
“Vacant homes have held back Baltimore’s potential for far too long,” said Jake Day, Secretary for Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, in a statement. “These awards through the first accelerated round of the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative will help us reinvigorate neighborhoods, attract new development, and build the Baltimore we all believe in—block by block.”
The Moore-Miller administration is focusing on neighborhoods with a high number of vacant properties and great potential for redevelopment. $15 million will go to Baltimore City and the Maryland Stadium Authority to demolish, stabilize, and acquire vacant properties to redevelop; $30 million will be given to 16 different community development organizations; and $5 million will help carry large, mixed-use projects from Fiscal Year 2025 into their next phase.
“Our collective work to end vacants in Baltimore is built on a shared vision of investing in communities that have long been intentionally disinvested in,” said Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott in a statement. “Today’s announcement of the latest round of BVRI grants will accelerate our work to deliver on that vision and will propel our efforts to the next level. All of us — the community, the city, our institutional partners in BUILD and GBC, and the state under Governor Moore — have joined together in an unprecedented partnership, which is showing what is possible when we lead with collaboration and commitment to the same shared vision. Baltimore thrives when it receives the investment it deserves, and together we’ll ensure that our neighborhoods see the difference between the history of intentional disinvestment they’ve endured and the vision of the future we’ve laid out through this partnership.”
The new BVRI Support Fund is a partnership to help community development organizations as they deploy their capital funds. Through a partnership with the Maryland Community Investment Corporation, more than $1 millions in grants from philanthropic partners have been approved for the Support Fund. These organizations include the Goldseker Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Abell Foundation, the Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, the Middendorf Foundation, and the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.
“Philanthropic partners recognize that capital alone isn’t enough; expert guidance and gap resources are essential to community development organizations’ success,” said Matthew D. Gallagher, president and CEO of Goldseker Foundation and member of the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Council, in a statement. “The rapid assembly of this fund demonstrates how committed Baltimore funders are to matching the State’s pace and ambition.”
The full list of grant awardees is available for viewing at the Department of Housing and Community Development’s website.
