Baltimore City approves program to sell vacant homes for $1
By Tolly Taylor
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BALTIMORE, Maryland (WBAL) — Baltimore City is moving forward with a program that will sell some vacant homes for just $1.
Wednesday morning, the Board of Estimates approved the program, but not everyone was on board.
City Council President Nick Mosby succeeded in getting the board to defer the item two weeks ago after detailing his concerns. But the spending board passed the new pricing structure in a four-to-one vote with Mosby as the lone “No.”
More than 13,000 homes in Baltimore are vacant. The city owns close to 1,000 of them. Individual buyers and community land trusts are eligible to buy the city-owned vacant houses for $1. Small nonprofits can purchase the homes for $1,000. Developers and larger nonprofits would need to pay $3,000.
The hope is that area residents will buy the vacant homes or lots, fix them up and live in them. Mosby argued that without specific written protections, city residents won’t be given priority in buying the properties, and they will be pushed out when neighborhoods improve.
“I did agree with a lot of the president’s concerns about the problems that we’re facing in terms of affordable housing and in some places, gentrifying of neighborhoods. I think the disagreement here today was, this is not the vehicle that’s going to address a lot of those concerns,” comptroller Bill Henry said.
The new pricing structure only applies to city-owned homes that appear on the “Buy Into BMore” website.
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