Recently, Sun reporter Tim Wheeler asked me to summarize some of the City's housing and redevelopment accomplishments under Mayor O'Malley. As I began to describe some of the major achievements, I was struck by just how far we've come as a city these past 6 years and I wanted to share some of the more significant successes with you

A Bleak Outlook
 In December of 1999, when property values were stagnant and more than 1,000 residents were leaving the city each month, Mayor O'Malley inherited a housing department on the brink of collapse. The Greater Baltimore Committee/Presidents' Roundtable report took a close look at HABC and HCD and highlighted a long list of operational and programmatic deficiencies which, left uncorrected, would be catastrophic to residents, neighborhoods and the City as a whole. Among other things, the report discovered that all four of Baltimore's HOPE VI projects were stalled; the Section 8 program was completely dysfunctional and facing a federal takeover; and the City's permit office was inefficient and unresponsive.

Compounding these problems was the city's scattershot and unfocused approach to development. Small-scale redevelopment projects were scattered here and there but many ignored market realities. On top of that, Baltimore had no strategy to reverse the growing number of vacant properties that blighted many neighborhoods.
In the 90's, most developers required huge subsidies to build new housing in Baltimore. And many of those developments concentrated poverty in densely populated areas, instead of creating healthy, mixed-income communities.

A New Beginning
Despite these significant and long-standing challenges, Mayor O'Malley saw great potential in Baltimore's neighborhoods and charged me with reorganizing and refocusing both HABC and HCD to serve a growing city.   The Mayor's economic growth strategy paved our way, requiring a new, strategic and market-driven approach to planning and development and a reengineering of critical systems and programs. Our mission was to build on Baltimore's strengths and stimulate development and investment by acquiring, clearing and consolidating vacant properties, something developers can't do.

To maximize impact and speed up progress, we targeted our energies and investments in places where large-scale disinvestment and blight had a stranglehold on entire neighborhoods. Our goals were clear: create quality housing, preserve affordability and bring working families back to Baltimore.

Results
In the last six years, Baltimore has acquired over 6,200 abandoned properties through the Mayor's Project 5000, returned or programmed almost one half for private owners, and recouped almost $9 million in proceeds. Today, national housing developers are lining up to compete for a piece of the $2 billion in redevelopment work underway. In east Baltimore, over 1,900 mostly decayed properties and lots are being replaced by new homes, life science facilities, retail and greenspaces.  

In southwest Baltimore, nearly 1,000 vacant and blighted Uplands apartments are coming down right now to make way for over for 1,100 new homes on 130 acres. In Claremont, demolition crews are clearing over 60 acres of vacant and blighted buildings for a new mixed-income community. And, in Barclay, developers are finalizing a plan that will bring over 225 new and renovated housing units to the heart of the City.

And the list goes on. Six years ago, these sites were desolate symbols of a stagnant and troubled city. Today, developers are investing their own money to create over 5,000 new houses and apartments in vibrant, healthy mixed-income communities.

Along the way we put all the city's HOPE VI projects back on track. A stone's throw from Little Italy, Albemarle Square has risen from the dust of the once crime-ridden Flag House Courts. In Washington Hill, Broadway Overlook replaced another failed public housing site with a model mixed-income community and made it possible for Johns Hopkins Hospital to move forward with a $1 billion redevelopment plan. In west Baltimore, Heritage Crossing replaced the desolate Murphy Homes public housing high-rises and, together with the West Side Urban Renewal Project, paved the way for unprecedented west side investment, including the UMB BioPark, Camden Crossing, and the massive Poppleton housing redevelopment project. After getting these projects back online, we turned around Baltimore's defective Section 8 office; launched new programs for healthy neighborhoods, affordable housing and foreclosure prevention; and devised new, market-driven redevelopment strategies for other neighborhoods like Reservoir Hill, Sharp Leadenhall and Greenmount West.

Recent studies show that Baltimore's population loss has stabilized and that many neighborhoods once written off are flourishing again. Many City homeowners are building equity for the first time, as average home sale prices have risen almost 120% since 1999.   These higher prices encouraged other homeowners to fix up their properties as well, evidenced by a near doubling in the annual number of building permits issued since 2000. This unprecedented growth will make our neighborhoods stronger and safer, and will help position Baltimore as a more attractive destination for some of the estimated 40,000 - 60,000 workers experts predict will come to the region in the next few years.
With over 30 years in the housing industry, I have worked for many elected officials in several major cities including New York and Boston. However, I am most proud of our redevelopment accomplishments and market transformations underway here in Baltimore under Mayor O'Malley. I look forward to working with you to build on these successes.    Thanks for all you do...