Baltimore Takes a Gamble to Reverse Decades of Neglect

New York Times

26-06-2025

Ava Turner wanted to move to Baltimore. More specifically, as the mother of four children living in a 700-square-foot rental in a small town 40 miles away, she wanted to own a home in Baltimore.
But Ms. Turner, who works two jobs, as a notary public and a nursing assistant, had little savings. Maybe she could scrape together a few thousand dollars for a down payment, she told a bank officer last fall during a meeting about her options for homeownership.
The bank officer made a call to a developer, and a few months later, in February, Ms. Turner was given the keys to a three-bedroom, two-bathroom rowhouse in the Park Heights neighborhood. With a $5,000 down payment, she bought the house for $230,000. 'I fell in love with it,' she said. 'My kids fell in love with it, too. I wanted to do this. I felt it in my spirit.'
Ms. Turner's solid credit score and desire to move to Park Heights made her a prime candidate for assistance as part of the city's 15-year initiative to restore blighted neighborhoods and to promote homeownership.
City officials call Baltimore 'the birthplace of redlining,' the systematic practice of denying Black people mortgages to maintain racial segregation. The aftereffects of redlining led to divestment, decay and a racial disparity in homeownership. Vacant and dilapidated buildings make up 30 percent of the properties in Park Heights and other historically Black neighborhoods, and Black residents make up 60 percent of the city's population, but only 23 percent of its homeowners.
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