Baltimore faces the persistent challenge of vacant and abandoned properties, disproportionately affecting housing stability and wealth building for legacy residents and contributing to population loss and millions of lost dollars in economic value. The neighborhoods most affected by vacancy are the communities that see significantly less investment than other Baltimore neighborhoods and experience high levels of population loss, contributing to further neighborhood decline and diminished quality of life.
To address vacancy and abandonment while uplifting ongoing efforts in the city, JPMorgan Chase is investing philanthropic capital in nonprofit, mission-driven developers and lenders to expand their capacity to obtain, rehabilitate, and sell affordable homes; provide additional services to support low- and moderate-income homeowners; and stabilize Baltimore neighborhoods. This grantee cohort is working to increase affordable housing supply, invest in neighborhood stabilization efforts, and build wealth in underserved communities.
Black Women Build-Baltimore Inc.
Black Women Build-Baltimore Inc. will restore vacant and deteriorated rowhomes in the Upton, Druid Heights, Penn North, and Poppleton neighborhoods of Baltimore and provide skilled trades training in addition to community- and wealth-building opportunities. Participants in this program can then purchase the homes they help build, increasing access to affordable, sustainable homeownership in Baltimore.
City Life Community Builders Ltd.
To support community revitalization and affordable homeownership and to address vacancy across Baltimore, City Life Community Builders leads initiatives for systemic changes in housing and financial policy and legislation reform. Through this grant, it will rehabilitate homes, advance workforce development, and build coalitions of committed stakeholders working to shift Baltimore’s systems to address housing vacancy at scale.City Life will additionally create and manage a Legacy Homeownership Repair Program to help long-term homeowners in East Baltimore maintain and update their homes.
Druid Heights Community Development Corporation
The Druid Heights Community Development Corporation (DHCDC) has led community development and housing initiatives in the Druid Heights community for more than 50 years through a community-led and community-informed approach. Through this grant, DHCDC will implement the Bakers View Street Homeownership Development project, a multiphase effort to produce affordable homeownership and rental opportunities and increase access to green space and employment opportunities for legacy residents.
Greater Baybrook Alliance Inc.
Greater Baybrook Alliance works in South Baltimore Peninsula to support community development revitalization efforts through economic development, green space improvements, public safety, and crime prevention through environmental design. Through this grant, the alliance will build organizational capacity and systems—including the ability to leverage Baltimore’s property acquisition programs—to advance whole-block redevelopment in the Brooklyn, Curtis Bay, and Brooklyn Park neighborhoods of Baltimore, with a focus on acquiring and redeveloping properties associated with crime hot spots.
Green & Healthy Homes Initiative Inc.
Many households across Baltimore cannot afford or access cost-effective measures to reduce energy consumption or costly health hazards, often making their homes unsafe or unstable. Green & Healthy Homes Initiative developed and established a holistic model that coordinates public- and private-sector resources to produce safe and energy-efficient housing interventions in low-income homes at risk from environmental hazards. Through this grant, the initiative will advise cohort partners on healthy home interventions that can improve health, safety, and energy efficiency outcomes and will complete holistic housing interventions to stabilize and preserve homeownership for seniors and family residents.
North East Housing Initiative Inc.
The community land trust (CLT) model emerged in the late 1960s to provide long-term affordable housing solutions by separating the ownership of land and housing. North East Housing Initiative developed an innovative CLT model that maintains permanent affordability of the home and land and addresses economic and racial disparities. With this grant, the initiative will acquire, renovate, and sell affordable homes in northeast Baltimore to low-income households through its CLT model, focusing on people earning up to 50 percent of the area median income.
National Community Stabilization Trust Develop Affordable Starter Homes Fund
The National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) is a national nonprofit organization focused on the community impacts of vacant, abandoned, and distressed homes. NCST partnered with Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund and the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development to create the Develop Affordable Starter Homes Fund. The fund provides emerging Baltimore developers with low-cost capital that can be used for acquisition and development costs associated with revitalizing distressed and vacant single-family homes. Through this grant, NCST will provide lower interest rates on loans for developers working in Baltimore neighborhoods and committed to a more place-based, whole-block approach to redevelopment.
ReBUILD Metro Inc.
For almost 20 years, ReBUILD Metro has implemented a community-driven whole-block redevelopment model to rebuild abandoned houses and revitalize East Baltimore neighborhoods without displacement. Through this grant, ReBUILD will build upon this model by advancing its block-by-block redevelopment of abandoned houses in East Baltimore, increasing affordable and mixed-income homebuying opportunities and expanding its legacy homeowner repair program, further ensuring that both new and legacy residents benefit from neighborhood revitalization.
Southwest Partnership Inc.
To reduce vacancy and coordinate economic and community development efforts, seven Baltimore neighborhoods and anchor institutions created Southwest Partnership in 2015. The group developed a housing plan focused on reducing vacancy and providing affordable housing options in the Mount Clare, Hollins Roundhouse, and Franklin Square neighborhoods. Through this grant, Southwest Partnership will continue building organizational capacity to implement its plan to identify, develop, and rehabilitate homes.
