What To Know
On December 11, 2023, Mayor Brandon Scott announced a $3 billion vision to fully eliminate the problem of vacant housing in Baltimore. This plan, made in partnership with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) and the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), will ensure that each one of these dangerous structures is either fixed up or turned into community green space within the next fifteen years.
The money comes together from City, State, and Private funding over time. Thus far, Mayor Scott has pledged $300 million from Baltimore, and Governor Moore has pledged $900 million from Maryland, for a total of $1.2 billion. This historic amount of support is already many times bigger than anything that has been done before and will continue to grow. The first portion of the City’s funding is done through Tax Increment Financing, or the TIF.
On December 3, 2024, a new law was signed. It created a TIF investment district. This law also allows the issuance of TIF bonds. The legislation approved the first tranche of Affordable Housing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) bonds at $65 million. In total, $150 million TIF bonds are planned to transform approximately 3900 units.
The Affordable Housing TIF is historic for two reasons. First, it is available to the entire city. Unlike previous TIFs which have focused on neighborhoods around the harbor, this TIF will bring much needed investment to East and West Baltimore. Second, by targeting vacants themselves rather than a specific area, we have created a “non-contiguous TIF” – something that has long been discussed by experts, but that we are the first large city in the Unites States to implement.
For more information on this historic initiative, visit Reframe Baltimore.