Understanding Baltimore’s Housing Crisis — and Why We Exist

The Challenge: Vacant Properties and Neighborhood Decline

Baltimore faces a deeply rooted housing crisis. The city has more than 13,000 vacant and abandoned structures and over 20,000 vacant lots, contributing to neighborhood disinvestment, public safety issues, and generational instability. In communities hardest hit by redlining and economic neglect, entire blocks are deteriorating — not just homes, but the social and economic fabric around them.

Public Response: Major Investments and Policy Momentum

In 2024, Governor Wes Moore launched a $150 million initiative to revitalize 5,000 vacant properties through the “Rebuild and Reinvest” campaign. Simultaneously, Mayor Brandon Scott proposed a 15-year, $3 billion plan to eliminate vacancies citywide, with an emphasis on community-rooted development that avoids displacement.

These efforts signal strong political will — but implementation requires localized partners ready to take action. That’s where we step in.

Our Neighborhoods Under Pressure: Affordability and Displacement

While revitalization is urgently needed, gentrification has already begun displacing residents in areas like East Baltimore, where average home prices rose from $65,000 to over $200,000 between 2000 and 2010. Without strategic, equity-focused interventions, many long-time residents risk being pushed out of their communities.

At the same time, the Housing Authority of Baltimore City reported a 12% increase in low-income households served in 2024 — showing demand for affordable housing continues to grow.

Our Mission: A Grassroots Approach to Housing Revival

The Housing Revival Project, Inc. is a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Baltimore from the block up.

We focus on:

Rehabilitating vacant homes
Creating and preserving affordable housing
Contracting with local, minority-owned firms
Preventing displacement through community-rooted development

Our goal is to build stable, equitable neighborhoods — not just by fixing buildings, but by preserving the communities that call them home.

Systemic Barriers to Housing Redevelopment

Baltimore’s housing crisis isn’t caused by a lack of vision — it’s blocked by layers of structural barriers that stall even the most well-intentioned redevelopment efforts:

Permitting delays can stretch routine projects into multi-month processes
Clouded property titles and old liens make acquisition and insurance nearly impossible
Final inspections often bottleneck occupancy approvals for months
Financing gaps exclude small-scale, high-need projects from traditional capital access

Despite these challenges, our work doesn’t begin from scratch.

The Housing Revival Project was born out of hands-on experience.
Before incorporating this nonprofit, our founder led the rehabilitation of multiple distressed homes in Baltimore, partnering with veteran reentry programs and two rehabilitation centers to place residents in safe, stable housing. These efforts required navigating permitting, managing liens, coordinating inspections, and directly contracting local tradespeople — the same system this organization is now structured to work within, at greater scale.

We’ve already built relationships with local inspectors, nonprofit collaborators, and property managers who understand the stakes — and the urgency — of restoring Baltimore’s housing stock.

Our 18–24 Month Goals: Advancing Housing Access in Baltimore

The Housing Revival Project is focused on converting Baltimore’s vacant properties into safe, high-quality homes for families in need. Over the next 18 to 24 months, we will execute a set of focused, measurable goals that reflect our commitment to long-term impact and operational excellence.

Between mid-2025 and the end of 2026, we aim to:

Rehabilitate 5 to 6 vacant residential properties, bringing each unit into full code compliance and occupancy readiness
Provide affordable rental housing for 5 to 6 low-income households, prioritizing residents with barriers to stable housing
Support over 20 local jobs through paid contracting, labor, and project management roles
Continue working with our trusted, minority-owned construction and property management partners, who have been central to our early efforts
Leverage external funding sources to cover at least 60% of direct construction costs for these projects

These goals are rooted in lived experience. Our founder has already navigated the challenges of rehabilitation in Baltimore — including permitting, lien resolution, and inspections — and this nonprofit was created to scale that impact across more communities, more families, and more homes.