At BUILD forum, Baltimore mayoral candidates share ideas for fixing vacancy crisis
There was only one topic on the agenda for Tuesday night’s mayoral forum hosted by community group BUILD and it was one of Baltimore’s most pressing: housing.
Before a crowd of hundreds gathered in the gymnasium at St. Frances Academy, the leading candidates for Baltimore’s top office outlined their plans to address the city’s vacancy crisis. A persistent problem in Baltimore, thousands of vacant homes have sat empty for years, attracting crime, diminishing property values and lowering the quality of life for longtime city residents.
“Many, many times you’ve heard from mayoral candidates how in their term they were going to eliminate this problem,” said Mayor Brandon Scott, the city’s leader of the past four years. Scott pledged to implement a 15-year, $3 billion plan he unveiled in December if reelected.
“This was never going to happen in any one mayoral term,” he said. “You have to be committed to long-term change.”
Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, Scott’s chief rival, touted her years of work with BUILD, a city-based group of congregations, schools and neighborhood associations that organizes around housing issues. Mayor from 2007 to 2010 and council president before that, Dixon said her plan aligns with BUILD’s agenda.
“It’s about consistency and building on that,” she said.
The forum was an orderly final public matchup between the two candidates in a campaign that has grown increasingly acrimonious in the past week. A third leading contender, Thiru Vignarajah, was slated to participate in Tuesday’s forum, but abruptly dropped out of the race last Wednesday, endorsing Dixon. All are Democrats. The primary will be May 14.
On Tuesday, Dixon and Scott sat on separate sides just below a stage, positioned with their supporters rather than appearing side by side in a traditional debate format. There were no barbs traded, though. No verbal punches were thrown. Instead, each took turns sitting around a table with BUILD leaders talking through their plans.
Scott’s proposal, which he developed in partnership with BUILD and the Greater Baltimore Committee, calls for creating a new Tax Increment Financing or TIF zone that could be used to finance $300 million worth of bonds in various neighborhoods across the city rather than one contiguous area like a traditional TIF. The plan also relies on $900 million in state investment — money that has not yet been fully secured — and $300 million from philanthropic and community investments. The full proposal would be implemented over 15 years.
Dixon’s proposal bears some resemblance. She, too, has proposed using TIF bonds to target development in historically redlined neighborhoods, those that have been disenfranchised through racist housing policies. Dixon, however, has proposed creating a land bank, a quasi-governmental agency that would acquire property, clear title issues, consolidate parcels and then get them into the hands of developers. As mayor in 2009, Dixon tried once before to institute a land bank, but was rebuffed by City Council members concerned about transparency and its financial feasibility.
Dixon said Tuesday that the land bank would streamline the process of acquiring and flipping vacant properties. She also proposed financing some vacant rehabilitation using the Maryland Stadium Authority, arguing that the authority can be used for a much broader purpose.
“That collaboration and partnership is needed as we move this process forward,” she said.
BUILD officials pressed Scott on whether he, too, would create a “special purpose entity” to assist with the city’s vacant homes. BUILD called for the creation of such an entity before the partnership with Scott was announced late last year.
As he has in the past, Scott argued that the city is already in a position to do the necessary work. The Department of Housing and Community Development has the authority to do project financing and to issue loans for the acquisition and demolition of properties, he said. Still, Scott said his plan does require the use of an existing special purpose entity, a defunct industrial development authority. Scott plans to revive the authority to help with issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds.
“We have this IDA that has only been used for industrial, but it doesn’t have to be,” he said.
Candidates were also asked about their plans to address neighborhood safety, specifically what they would do in their first 90 days in office and first year to improve the relationship between city police and communities.
Dixon said the city has been losing residents due to quality-of-life crimes that must be a focus of the next mayor in addition to the city’s homicide rate. She pledged to work with State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Sheriff Sam Cogen, both of whom have endorsed her, to initiate better collaboration with the mayor’s office and city police. Dixon also said she would push to create more community schools where services would be offered to families.
“We’ve got to deal with the kids before it happens,” she said.
Scott pledged to continue his current approach, which has involved funding community violence intervention programs and expanding victim services. He said he would establish an Office of Reentry in his next term to help Baltimoreans returning from incarceration transition.
“We’re going to double down and triple down on those efforts because we know it’s working,” he said, touting the city’s homicide count, which fell below 300 in 2023 for the first time in almost a decade. The crowd in attendance applauded.
“We are not going back to the old ways of thinking of public safety,” Scott said.
