BALTIMORE HOUSING QUESTIONNAIRE

Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore -----Democrat

Cindy Walsh has for several years been a huge activist for social issues and especially housing issues.  Baltimore housing cannot be approached without looking at HUD policy and Enterprise Zone policy-----both drivers of development including housing.  As one of the middle-class who see the attacks against personal wealth and assets I know how hard this is hitting the working class in Baltimore.  HUD has been re-purposed by what I call global corporate 'Democrats' so that the original mission of this Federal agency from one of helping low-income citizens with housing now has Federal funding aiding Enterprise Zone development we all know to be highly corporate campuses and very controlled residential falling under the misnomer of 'affordable housing'.  Any Mayor of Baltimore wants a downtown to flourish----cities always have a density of national corporations and luxury rentals in its downtown center.  The problem for Baltimore over decades has been the drain of development funds to promote very targeted benefit from these funds by powerful institutions that need to be given a back seat for a while in development decision-making.  To sum-----Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore will make it a top priority to see Federal funds from agencies like HUD and from funding for Enterprise Zones are used to balance what has been plenty of affluent development with focus on REAL mixed-income development in already existing development zones and movement of funds to communities surrounding city central with an emphasis on building community housing platform for the poorest in communities. 


1.  30,000 vacant homes-----

My housing agenda starts with ending outsourcing of community building and bringing small business and construction to the citizens in each community.  I envision identifying houses in communities needing demolition  vs those to rehab building a debris recycling system in each community so citizens can not only bring houses down but save recycled construction debris to be used in rehab.  Right now all those community resources are being given to outsourced development contractors and they profit from recycling. 


The second vision for this rebuilding comes in creating a huge public green space by removing not only demolished houses but all of the concrete associated with these large blighted neighborhoods.  Each community can easily have several acres of public green space in a central location that will serve as a community food source with public institutions like school, recreation, health clinics.  My goal of having the poor as homeowners with a source for food giving housing and food security will see as many people engaged in this rebuilding as homeowners.  A grand public greenhouse with small animal husbandry creates a food economy from growing, harvesting, butchery, and small food stores all operated by citizens in each community.  So, this creates the platform for the poorest in small business ownership, home-ownership, and food access freedom.

Once the poorest are stable, a community has an easier time recruiting working/middle-class citizens to grow around this public green space.  New home construction can be funded with everything from Enterprise Zone/subprime mortgage settlement funds/HUD grants for mixed-income communities, and a redirect of Baltimore City subsidy of downtown development to these surrounding communities.  I would not want huge investment firms that buy entire blocks of communities for development control----instead I would look for smaller developers who value being awarded the opportunity to work with citizens in creating mixed-income multi-plex rentals.  Believe it or not, there are plenty of regional players wanting this opportunity.

So, the 30,000 vacant homes will be either repurposed as rehabs, demolished as unsalvageable, or redirected to being part of a public green space and institution campus.

2.  What about the middle-class housing?

I attended the last Baltimore Housing meeting to ask what is meant by 'affordable housing' in an area like Barclay and Harwood communities bordering Johns Hopkins Homewood for example.  I live in Charles Village and see the rents rising in Mt Vernon and Charles Village from $450-800 in the days of affordable rentals----to today with rents rising to $1200 -1700.  You can easily see the plan for this corridor being very affluent.  Other cities gentrifying are having this city central with rents of $2,000-3,000 in a decade with prices higher soon after that.  So, what is affordable when rents are this high?  Of course, not the middle-class.  The middle-class are being forced to commute to these large cities an hour and more from suburbs they can afford.  As Mayor of Baltimore I would be glad to promote co-op and land trust zoning in these central communities----rent control is a must when rents are predicted so high.

I stated above that a stabilized underserved community makes integration of middle-class easier and that will be a large part of new housing around these green spaces.  What I call surrounding communities many call SE and SW Baltimore and NE and NW Baltimore.  The opportunities for co-ops and land trusts are huge with surrounding public green spaces creating a good quality of life with commutes to downtown for work easily accessible.  Looking at previous development of communities wanting gentrification the plan installed citizens into vacant to values in a very piecemeal way leaving these communities struggling with the poverty and crime for decades.  That will not be the case with the development plan above as demolition and creation of green space is labor intense but cost manageable.  Previous development envisioned population density over public green space and I am the opposite.

3.  Accountability in Baltimore HUD.

My entire campaign platform is rebuilding the Baltimore agencies into communities and with oversight and accountability.  Right now, all City Hall is a skeleton crew with agencies tied to corporate boards served by appointed committees.  I will reverse this structure with housing agencies filled with citizens from communities serving citizens in communities.  I will have appointments to Baltimore Development Corporation that include representatives from all communities---small business owners, home-owners, community bankers, and citizen advocate groups.  This will take all of the lack of transparency caused by proprietary wheeling and dealing with Wall Street banks and investment firms out of the housing picture and allow all dealings to be transparent and accountable.  I have a decade with United Parcel Service and their Industrial Engineering Department---UPS is known to be the most efficient and effectively managed corporation in the world----and I have great systems operations experience as my best ability.  So, we will get Baltimore City Hall running with accountability and staff connected with giving citizens quality service and keeping accurate data.  This in itself will bring lots of revenue back to housing to be used in community rebuilding.

4.  Baltimore for too long has allowed predatory landlords fleece our low-income renters taking all ability of citizens in need to accumulate wealth to move into better living situations.  Being trapped in what many call slum building management will go under my administration.  From Rent Court to Section 8----from Veteran's housing to the disabled-----all public housing and equal opportunity for the lowest income will be honored and citizens treated with dignity.  It is incredible to think how much revenue that could have grown community housing was lost under this predatory system.

As an environmentalist I will be keen on eliminating lead and asbestos from housing and soil.  Keeping environmental justice alive, I will work hard to make sure corporate development addresses concerns of citizens in all communities.  These times are seeing dangers from fracking and natural gas lines to incinerators----and seeing not enough of solar/wind/green space as quality of life issues.  I do not want global corporations bringing global factories to Baltimore with the same level of pollution as in Asian nations---I want local and regional factories manufacturing what everyone needs----there can be plenty of employment in rebuilding a local and regional economy.  I am a strong public school advocate and would reverse this trend of closing schools and forcing parents to send children across town to have a good school in their neighborhood and I will support our public universities as vital to any community.  America needs to take back government and citizen voice by rebuilding local structures and making communities first in fiscal budgets!

Thank you for giving me this time,


Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore