Baltimore proposes selling abandoned homes for $1 each as officials grow concerned vacant properties are crime catalysts

Baltimore is proposing selling abandoned homes for $1 each as officials grow concerned that the vacant properties are crime catalysts.

More than 13,500 homes in Baltimore remain vacant, with the city owning just under 900 of them. The new proposal would allow sale of the homes to private buyers for just $1, to nonprofits for $1,000, and to developers for $3,000.

The offer is not without a catch, however. Homebuyers would have to agree to spend $90,000 on renovations — and private buyers also would have to move into the properties within one year and live in them for five years.

"We are having properties sitting vacant and abandoned, and we know all of the things that come along with that," the mayor's deputy chief of staff told city council members, according to WJZ-TV.

Vacant properties have been a magnet for violent crime and safety concerns in recent years. WJZ reported that 22 homicides had occurred in or on vacant properties in the last five years. This is in addition to dead bodies that have been removed from vacant homes, a total that the city doesn't tabulate.

Other concerns are related to structural integrity, after three firefighters died while battling a vacant home fire in 2022.

Despite the city recently celebrating a drop in homicide rates, its property crimes have skyrocketed.

While Mayor Brandon Scott touted the 17% decrease in homicides for the first six weeks of 2024 compared to 2023, in addition to 9% fewer nonfatal shootings, WBFF-TV stated that police data showed an 80% increase in stolen cars in 2024 compared to 2023. Thefts from cars also reportedly increased by 60%, while robberies increased by 21% in the same time period.

To underscore the problem, a man was stabbed at a bus stop near city hall just hours after city councilors discussed these issues. The suspect was placed in custody for using a can opener to repeatedly stab a man in the head following a verbal altercation. The victim was hospitalized with minor injuries, WBAL-TV stated.

The apparent issues with crime and home vacancies did not stop some city councilors, however, from claiming the city's latest plan creates other ramifications.

Councilman Robert Stokes described four different neighborhoods in the city as looking "like a war zone," but then reportedly expressed concerns over gentrification and equity, WJZ said.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos said she feared there hadn't been enough enforcement on homes that were already sold, the station noted.

"We have 420 properties that are still vacant even though the city sold them, and so that also has to be fixed. How do we make sure the enforcement is there if we're not going to accomplish the goal of being able to get the city to take it back?" she told reporters.

The councilwoman also said a strategy is needed to ensure the city would have "true mixed-income communities."

After Odette and other council members expressed their concerns for the $1 home plan, the mayor announced that the vote for the project would be delayed another two weeks.

Vote on Baltimore mayor's $1 vacant homes plan put on holdyoutu.be

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