Latest news with #DanielleJBrown
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Scott touts reduction of thousands of vacant Baltimore properties since 2020
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott promotes efforts to reduce vacant properties as part of the solution in decreasing homelessness in the city. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters) Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Friday that the city has reduced thousands of vacant properties over the last five years, which he said should ultimately help reduce the number of people who experience homelessness by keeping housing costs down by increasing supply. 'Affordability is number one for us in Baltimore,' Scott said at a Friday panel at the Maryland Association of Counties' summer conference. 'Baltimore, as we all know, has a ton of housing stock, but a large portion of that is unlivable, vacant housing throughout our city.' He reported that since he became mayor in December 2020, the city has reduced the number of vacant properties by about 3,500 units, after a period of more than 20 years when the number of vacant properties had not changed. 'We were at 16,000 vacant properties when I came into office. As of 20 minutes before we started today, we're now down to 12,510,' he said to applause from MACo attendees. Improving housing stock and housing access was just one of the many potential solutions offered at a pair of housing events Friday at the conference in Ocean City. Scott was joined by members of state and local government as well as homeless advocates to discuss the challenges and potential solutions to homelessness. 'People always tell you that homelessness is this simple thing to fix, and that you can take these cookie cutter approaches,' Scott said. 'No — every single person experiencing homelessness needs a specific, tailored thing for them.' More people aged 65+ face homelessness, state housing officials report He said that investing in vacant housing efforts across the city, not just in downtown areas, will especially help underserved areas where people experience higher rates of poverty. He added that a partnership between the city, the Moore administration and private developers called Reframe Baltimore will bring in $3 billion over the next 15 years to eliminate vacant houses in the city. But Scott assured the audience that there's still work to be done. Danielle Meister, assistant secretary of homeless solutions with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, said there has been a 28% decrease in homelessness across the state since 2015. There's also been a 42% drop in unsheltered homelessness since 2015, she said. Meister attributes that drop to the state's adoption of 'housing first' policies. 'Rather than requiring people to first go through treatment or first get a job to kind of earn housing,' she said, 'we really endorse and fiercely protect the idea that they should be connecting people rapidly to permanent housing with the supports to stay there successfully. 'It's really hard to get a job, it's really hard to maintain sobriety if you don't have a regular consistent place to live,' she added. But even with that progress, there are a few populations where state data shows 'really concerning trends' particularly with people aged 65 years and older and among families with children. Meister said the number of homeless seniors doubled between fiscal 2016 and fiscal 2024. 'The vast majority of the homeless system resources, they're set up for people who can work and eventually, maybe, pay their own rent,' Meister said. 'Most of our homeless system is not equipped to serve older adults who are on restricted income.' She added that there's been a 'big increase' in families experiencing homelessness since the pandemic. 'It looks different than single adults, so what we're going to start to focus on a little bit more is family homelessness,' she said. Meister said that looking at trends in state data on homelessness can help identify and target new solutions. 'Generally, our state has been really great at accelerating permanent, supportive housing growth, not so much on other housing interventions which is more often navigated to families.' Nick Rinehart, legislative analyst for the Howard County Council, asked the panel how officials can counter the stigma of homelessness to help push solutions in their jurisdictions. 'We're elected to do the right thing, not the popular one,' Scott said. 'We have to educate folks … but sometimes, they're still going to be mad – so what? 'We have to be able to do what we know is right,' Scott said. 'We just have to do the right thing no matter who gets mad.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Maryland continues to pose affordability challenges for low-income renters, report finds
File photo of residential and businesses units on the streets in Annapolis on March 24, 2025. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters) Rental options continue to be widely unaffordable for most low-income workers in Maryland, where a renter needs to make more than twice the minimum wage to afford a one-bedroom apartment, according to a new report. The 2025 edition of the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 'Out of Reach' report says that a worker earning Maryland's minimum wage of $15 an hour would need to work 89 hours a week in order to afford a one-bedroom rental home in the state and still have money for other living expenses. This is the second year that the coalition ranked Maryland as the eighth-most difficult state for low-income renters to afford. Claudia Wilson Randall, executive director of the Community Development Network of Maryland, said she's 'disappointed' in the lack of movement. 'We have not made much progress in the state of Maryland and housing,' she said. The report, released Monday, shows that Marylanders working 40 hours a week would have needed to earn $39.15 an hour to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment in fiscal 2025. That salary, which the report calls a 'housing wage,' covers the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment at $2,036 without having to sacrifice more than 30% of income on housing, That means a Maryland household must earn at least $6,786 a month, or $81,434 annually, to afford a two-bedroom apartment. That's up from the fiscal 2024 housing wage of $36.70 an hour, or $76,345 a year, to afford that two-bedroom. State officials launch 10-year plan to boost supports for growing senior population The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Maryland has also increased in the last year, from $1,909 a month in fiscal 2024 to $2,036 a month in fiscal 2025, according to the report. Renters make up 33% of all households in Maryland, with about 760,800 renters across the state. The report shows that the average Maryland renter has a wage of $22.31, well below the 'housing wage' to afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to the report. Maryland falls behind neighboring Washington, D.C., which ranks fifth for unaffordability with a $44.50 housing wage for two-bedroom apartments. California leads the country with a $49.61 two-bedroom housing wage. Wilson said that there are several reasons why Marylanders are struggling to afford rental units in the state – it's not just rent going up and wages stagnating, though those are factors. 'Landlord costs are going up. Cost of insurance is going up … it's utilities,' she said. 'Inflation is also real. That's just a hard place for renters to be.' Wilson noted that high rent falls particularly hard on health care workers and other low-paid professions. Nursing assistants, home health and personal care aids, construction workers, cashiers and truck drivers, all have average wages that fall below the 'housing wage' of $33.24 to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Maryland. Kevin Lindamood, president and CEO of Health Care for the Homeless, agrees that the high cost of rent impacts many in the health care sector. 'The high cost of housing continues to be one of the biggest issues facing Maryland families, including the very health care workers we all rely on when we're sick – like the workforce employed by community health centers like ours,' he said in a written statement. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Wilson said that while the issue of renter affordability is complex, the state can start by prioritizing the development of new homes across the state to help fill a 96,000-unit housing shortage. 'Maryland needs to make progress in the production of housing,' she said. 'We also need to create more opportunities for affordable homeownership,' she said. 'Again, it's not a simple problem with one simple answer, but we have to make progress.' State leaders are already aware of the state's significant housing shortage, particularly for those earning lower wages. In 2023, Gov. Wes Moore pushed a housing package to increase the supply of affordable housing options in the state. He attempted to build off of that momentum in the 2025 session by pushing a bill to tie new housing development to areas with high job growth, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Solve the daily Crossword
