The house on Monroe Street has been empty for years.
Its windows are boarded, and rain pours through gaping holes in its sagging roof, soaking the floors and walls until the smell of damp rotting wood drifts into the street. On a block in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood, feral cats play in piles of trash in neglected corners, and rats dart between the shadows.
And in between there are houses that are homes—still standing strong, still cared for, surrounded by decay.
This is a daily reality for many Baltimore residents, shaped by systematic disinvestment, aging infrastructure, and complex ownership issues.
Vacant homes impact the lives of those who live beside them in profound ways. Water damage from unrepaired roofs spreads to neighboring homes, mold creeps into shared walls, and illegal dumping attracts rodents, which aren’t picky about whose trash they invade. These issues create a cycle of decay that’s hard to escape.
Keisha Avery, a resident of Monroe Street, has lived alongside vacant homes for about two months and sees them as both a nuisance and an opportunity.
“The biggest problem is the rats and the trash, and the city doesn’t want to tear (the vacant buildings) down or clean them up,” she said. “They should turn abandoned homes into shelters for people who are homeless, it’d be better for everyone.”
Beyond the Boards
Each vacant house has its own story. For some, it starts with the passing of an elderly homeowner, with no family to take over the property or no will in place to designate ownership. Others are sold to commercial companies or landlords who have little intention—or capacity—to renovate.
“Many of these homes are abandoned because families didn’t have the resources or estate planning to keep them” said Baltimore City Councilwoman Odette Ramos. “Others were sold to absentee landlords who never took action.”
“We’ve had cases where someone bought properties thinking they could flip them, but they ran out of money or never had the ability to follow through,” Ramos said. “In other cases, families think the property was already lost because of unpaid taxes, so they just walk away.”
The barriers to reclaiming these properties are immense. Many vacant homes are what Ramos calls “heir properties;” the original owner has passed, and heirs cannot resolve ownership through the probate process.
“Most people don’t understand how to rehabilitate a property, even if they have a sincere desire to do so,” says Nneka Nnamdi, founder of Fight Blight Baltimore . “Without clear title or access to capital, even inherited homes sit untouched, decaying further while families remain stuck.”
Nnamdi emphasizes the need for targeted solutions, like a home renovation loan specifically for inherited properties.
Such a program “could pair the costs of resolving probate issues with the funds needed for renovations,” she said. “Without this, many families are left with no way forward.”
A System That Perpetuates Decay
The city’s tax lien system often traps these homes in bureaucratic quicksand. When homeowners can’t pay their taxes, the debts are sold to investors who pile on fees and interest rates.
“It’s predatory for homeowners. For vacant properties, it creates a cycle that leads nowhere, leaving these homes in limbo for years, sometimes decades,” Ramos said.
Baltimore has been tackling the problem with a foreclosure process that allows the city to take control of a property based on the unpaid taxes, rather than focusing on the owner.
This is particularly effective for properties where ownership is complicated or where absentee landlords have disappeared. The city has also introduced a vacancy tax to push absentee owners to act on their properties.
Nnamdi highlights the deeper impact of vacancy on communities, particularly on mental and emotional well-being.
“When a child has to walk past 29 vacant properties on the way to school…they internalize the neglect,” she says. “They begin to wonder, ‘What’s wrong with me or my community that we live like this?’ It creates a psychological barrier to success.”
The Cost of Progress
While some vacant homes are eventually rehabilitated, they are often sold at prices far beyond what local residents can afford, leaving many residents feeling left out. As E. 28th St. Resident Tina Corales points out, the work requires more than policy tweaks.
“They’re making them look nice, but it’s not for us,” Corales said. “They go and refix them, but they make them so high-priced that nobody around here can live in them.”
Her frustration reflects a disconnect between redevelopment efforts and the needs of Baltimore’s residents: even when the city takes ownership of vacant properties, the cost of rehabilitation often outweighs the market value of the property.
Ramos highlights the financial challenges that limit the city’s ability to address the issue in a way that benefits the community at large.
“We need money—real money—to make this work. Some of these homes cost more to rehab than they’re worth on the market,” Ramos said. “Without subsidies, it’s impossible to bring them back to life.”
Nnamdi advocates for programs like a “developer academy” to teach residents the renovation process and guide them through accessing resources.
“We need to empower communities to take ownership,” she said. “Education is the first step. When people understand how to navigate redevelopment, they can begin to reclaim their neighborhoods.”
Nnamdi also stresses the importance of community-led revitalization efforts. “Look at the work being done in Harlem Park, the Black Arts District, or organizations like Black Women Build,” she said. “These groups are leading the charge with limited resources, proving that lived experience drives the most equitable solutions.”
A Path Forward
Ramos and Nnamdi agree that long term success will come not only from reducing the number of vacant homes but from transforming entire neighborhoods into desirable places to live.
Baltimore has about 13,000 vacant homes and 20,000 more empty lots, creating a crisis that is as much a story of systemic failures as it is one of resilience.
For residents like Avery and Corales, the fight against blight is a daily battle. Each repaired home offers hope, but the road to transformation remains long and uncertain.
“Blight touches every part of the human experience,” Nnamdi said. “It’s not just about fixing buildings. It’s about addressing the systemic failures that allowed this decay to take hold in the first place.”
For those living on the edge, the boarded-up house next door is a symbol of what’s been lost—and a reminder of what’s still worth fighting for.
‘Vacants in Baltimore’ is a series produced as a senior capstone project by the Loyola University Maryland Department of Communications and Media, under the supervision of April Newton
