Inadequate funds for public housing and decaying home conditions have forced thousands of Baltimore residents to find shelter any way possible.
Baltimore Housing, which oversees the city?s public housing units and housing choice vouchers, has seen its public housing program steadily decrease in the past two decades, according to an ongoing report by the agency.
In December 1999, Baltimore totaled 13,640 units of “viable public housing” in the city, Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano said. Currently, the city has 11,028 public housing units and a waiting list of several thousand people looking for affordable housing.
The city has seen its housing choice vouchers, which assist residents with rent and mortgage payments, increase from 7,624 to 11,724 since 1999.
As decaying public housing units are torn down, displaced residents look for new homes in and out of Baltimore, Graziano said. The city has about 1,000 people involved in a mobility program that offers consultation to people looking for new housing.
Baltimore?s public housing trend, though, mirrors the national trend, according to a report from the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Annual funding for public housing operating and capital costs fell by 25 percent between 1999 and 2006, after adjusting for inflation,” the center reported. “The 2006 funding level of $2.4 billion is slightly below the amount HUD estimates is required just to meet new capital repair needs that arise each year, without taking into account the substantial funding needed to address the $22 billion backlog of needed capital repairs”
Housing costs have also outpaced wage increases in the Baltimore region, according to a 2006 report issued by the Baltimore City Task Force on Inclusionary Zoning and Housing. In the Baltimore region, from 2000 to 2004, the median home price rose 99 percent, while wages rose 19 percent.
“Overall, the supply of housing affordable to families lower on the income scale has been shrinking and in some counties disappeared altogether,” the task force reported. “At the same time, there has been a rising imbalance between where jobs are growing and where homes at moderate and low price levels are available.”
Michael Sarbanes, executive director for the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, estimated that about 5,000 public housing units have been demolished in Baltimore in the last five or six years.
“There has not been a plan for replacing public housing that has been torn down,” Sarbanes said.
“It?s a vast population that has been affected,” he added. “They?re being forced to stay in drastically overcrowded and unsafe situations all over the region ? it?s a very serious issue.”
Affordable Housing
» Housing is deemed “affordable” if its rent or mortgage is not greater than 30 percent of the household?s gross income, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
» In 2005, almost two-thirds of Baltimore City?s households earned less than 80 percent of $72,000 ? the average median income for a family of four in Baltimore. Many of those families were considered “housing burdened,” according to Baltimore?s Citizens Planning and Housing Association.
