Baltimore keeps funding housing. So why are residents still locked out? | GUEST COMMENTARY (original) (raw)

Baltimore does not have a housing shortage. It has a housing access problem, and our leaders know it.

The Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development, state officials and elected leaders continue to announce new funding rounds, development plans and commitments to affordable housing. Programs such as Reinvest Baltimore are promoted as solutions. Millions of dollars are allocated. Press releases are issued.

But the outcomes have not changed.

Baltimore still has nearly 12,000 vacant properties. Tens of thousands of families remain locked out of homeownership. Rent continues to drain wealth from communities where residents pay $1,200 to $1,800 a month without building equity.

So the question is no longer whether we are investing in housing.

The question is whether we are investing in the right things.

What we are funding right now is not access. It is output.

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and city agencies continue to prioritize unit production over ownership pathways. The focus remains on how many homes can be built, not on whether Baltimore residents can actually buy them.

Our housing system is built on requirements that exclude the very communities these programs claim to serve. These include tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment, credit scores above 580 or 620 and traditional W-2 income documentation.

For many working families in Baltimore, especially in historically redlined Black neighborhoods, those requirements are not just barriers. They are disqualifiers.

The numbers make that clear. While the median home price in the Baltimore area is around 360,000,themedianassetwealthforaBlackfamilyinthecityunaffectedbyincarcerationisapproximately[360,000, the median asset wealth for a Black family in the city unaffected by incarceration is approximately [360,000,themedianassetwealthforaBlackfamilyinthecityunaffectedbyincarcerationisapproximately2,700. That is not a gap that can be closed with another grant cycle or financial literacy workshop. It is a structural failure.

And yet, we continue to fund housing development as if access will somehow fix itself.

It will not.

Even Habitat for Humanity builds only a fraction of what is needed each year. The model works. But without scale and systemic backing, it cannot meet demand.

Meanwhile, publicly funded developments move forward without requiring meaningful pathways to ownership for the people already living in these communities.

That is not a housing strategy. It is a revolving door.

We build. Families remain locked out. We build again.

And then we wonder why nothing changes.

At some point, leadership has to move beyond announcements and confront the core issue. Access to homeownership is structurally blocked.

If we are serious about solving this crisis, then policy has to reflect that reality.

That means the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development should require that any publicly funded housing initiative includes measurable, enforceable pathways to ownership for Baltimore residents, not just affordability on paper.

It means rethinking qualification standards that exclude families based on credit history, banking access, and lack of generational wealth.

It means investing in models that allow people to build equity through participation, not just purchase.

I have developed a proposal that does exactly that. It allows families to convert verified labor into home equity, effectively turning work into a down payment. Instead of waiting years to save tens of thousands of dollars, families can build their own homes alongside their neighbors and enter homeownership with an immediate stake.

This is not charity. It is accountability.

If public dollars are being used, then public outcomes should follow.

Baltimore has everything it needs to lead on this issue. Vacant land. Available funding. Institutions such as Coppin State University, rooted in the community. And residents who are ready to invest in their neighborhoods if given a real opportunity.

What we do not have is alignment between policy and reality.

Until that changes, we will continue funding housing that does not translate into ownership and calling it progress.

Enough of the press releases.

Enough of the repeated headlines.

This is not just a housing crisis. It is an access crisis.

And Baltimore’s leadership must start acting like it.

Izabela Engel is a social work student at Coppin State University and an advocate for expanding homeownership access in Baltimore.