Fighting Renter Displacement with Buy Back the Block

Why this investment?

While Black residents remain the majority in the city, Baltimore is also losing its Black residents at a concerning pace. The City lost about 57,000 Black residents between 2010 and 2020, which Morgan State University scholar Lawrence T. Brown attributes this to several factors, including disinvestment in majority-Black neighborhoods (and higher-quality schools in nearby suburban areas), violence, and a reverse migration to the South. Many of the City’s Black residents and neighborhoods were devastated from the foreclosure crisis of 2008 and are still recovering from that setback.  

In 2019, the City partnered with Live Baltimore, a nonprofit dedicated to retaining and attracting residents to Baltimore in the face of longstanding population losses, to convene a cross-sector working group focused on addressing community stability specifically in the City’s many “middle neighborhoods.” Middle neighborhoods are stable and diverse communities that are the heart of Baltimore. According to the Baltimore Housing Market Typology, these neighborhoods are neither highly affluent nor deeply distressed and possess significant assets but face vulnerability. Characterized by high, though declining, homeownership rates, these areas are racially diverse and home to an aging population. Residents of middle neighborhoods account for 57 percent of Baltimore's total population, Baltimore is dedicating about a tenth of its ARPA funding toward strengthening middle neighborhoods, including home repair grants, incentives to develop vacant properties, community organizing/engagement, and the Buy Back the Block program aimed at helping renters buy homes in their neighborhoods. 

Live Baltimore proposed Buy Back the Block through the City’s RFP process, seeing it as an opportunity to implement some of the anti-displacement strategies in the middle neighborhoods plan. Milli explains that the memory of the foreclosure crisis’s impact was top of mind during the COVID-19 crisis. “We were really interested in how we could repair some of the damage to communities and their residents following the last housing market crisis,” Milli says.

What is this investment?

Designed as an anti-displacement program, Buy Back the Block aims to empower existing Baltimore City renters, especially those residing in Black communities, to remain in their neighborhoods and become homeowners. While Maryland’s homeowners benefit from various protections, renters are more vulnerable to displacement. Buy Back the Block works to simultaneously stem displacement while building wealth. The program provides financial assistance to help renters to purchase homes in their current communities and become first-time homeowners. 

In developing the program, Live Baltimore took a data-driven approach to selecting the service area, targeting neighborhoods with majority-Black populations, stable housing markets, and where homeownership rates have declined since the 2008 foreclosure crisis. Buy Back the Block originally identified five priority middle neighborhoods, all located within qualified census tracts (QCT) across various parts of the City: Belair-Edison, Edmondson Village, Middle Branch, Mondawmin, and York Road.

Nearly two years into implementation, the program is shifting to serve a broader population of renters to prevent displacement across Baltimore. In September 2024, the service area will expand to include all renters living in QCT’s of Baltimore. Many potential buyers from the original neighborhoods needed more time to prepare for purchasing a home, as they were often in the early stages of improving their credit or saving for a down payment. In response, and to meet the federal spending deadline, the program will allow renters in any QCT to purchase a home in any QCT. This decision accelerates the spending of ARPA funds while maintaining the broader goal of preventing displacement and enabling renters to choose neighborhoods that best fit their needs. Although the expansion moves slightly away from the original focus on keeping residents within their immediate neighborhood, it still aligns with the overall objective of stabilizing vulnerable populations and ensuring access to homeownership within the City.

The decision to expand the service area reflects the challenges facing Baltimore residents in a rapidly tightening housing market. “Many people never envisioned themselves as homeowners, so transitioning from never considering homeownership to improving their credit, saving a modest down payment of $1,000, and finding a home in today’s more challenging and competitive housing market is taking these buyers a bit more time,” Milli says. The median home price in Baltimore has increased by approximately 42.21 percent from 2019 to 2024, making homeownership increasingly difficult, especially when 19.6 percent of the population lives below the poverty line—far higher than the national average of 12.5 percent. The median household income in Baltimore is $58,349, creating further barriers for residents to afford homes as prices surge.

To be eligible for the program, the renter needs to have lived in the neighborhood for at least the last 12 months, completed homeownership counseling, and be using a mortgage for the home purchase. Originally, the program had no income threshold, reflecting its aim to support residents in improving their economic status while remaining in neighborhoods they love. With its expansion into more eligible neighborhoods (some more affluent than the original set), a 120 percent AMI limit has been imposed.

Buy Back the Block offers down payment assistance funds so that residents can purchase a home in a neighborhood that will best meet their household needs. The program offers two levels of assistance depending on whether the home needs additional work: $10,000 for the purchase of move-in-ready homes or $20,000 for homes requiring renovation.

Centering equity in the program

Equity was a central focus of Baltimore’s ARPA program, extending to its community grant application process. In 2018, the City passed an equity ordinance with the focus of weaving equity in all city endeavors. The recovery office asked applicants to explain how their project incorporates and advances equity in their letter of intent, and then also to conduct an equity impact analysis. To address historical injustices, this analysis inspects how the project will advance equity for different groups, accounts for potentially racially disparate outcomes, and incorporates an equity lens into tracking outcomes and the identification of populations that will be served by the project.

Buy Back the Block has been recruiting participants through an intensive marketing campaign including events co-hosted with community organizations, direct mailings, and targeted engagement at neighborhood shopping centers. Milli has been happy with the turnout at events organized with partner groups, describing how, for example, more than 100 people came to a Wednesday night event in the Cherry Hill neighborhood to learn about the program.

The Buy Back the Block team came up with inclusive solutions to address challenges that arose during the application process. Many applicants were in non-traditional lease situations, for example, such as living with their parents, and paying them very low rent. For such applicants, the team would allow a letter. For instance, if people were renting from a family member, the application will require an affidavit from the family member, proof of consistent rent payments, and documentation to prove that they are receiving mail on that address. 

Amid the dwindling housing inventory and the rising interest rates, Live Baltimore is coming up with novel collaborative solutions to implement the program successfully. Buy Back the Block was designed when the housing market in Baltimore was booming, inventory was plentiful, and interest rates were at 2.5 percent. Over the last 18 months, interest rates have risen to more than 7 percent and housing inventory is at record lows. As one strategy to increase inventory, the team is collaborating with community development corporations to further housing renovation projects.

Buy Back the Block has partnered with the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) to help renters transition into homeowners with the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program. One of the eight successful homebuyers has used the federal voucher to transition from renting to homeownership. This individual was able to convert their housing voucher into homeownership assistance, and thanks to the combination of the Buy Back the Block grant and additional down payment support, their housing voucher now covers more than their mortgage, allowing them to live mortgage-free. This partnership aligns with the program’s goal of turning housing vouchers into homeownership assistance, particularly in target neighborhoods like Cherry Hill—easing the demand for rental units.

Recently, HABC hired a new staff member with a community development background, specifically tasked with managing the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program. This collaboration has the potential to increase the number of housing voucher recipients who can benefit from Buy Back the Block as the program expands. The success story of the first voucher-to-homeownership participant has already sparked significant interest among residents at Housing Authority events, and the program team is optimistic about future opportunities to help more people achieve homeownership.

Outcomes to date

Since the application process opened in March 2023, Buy Back the Block has generated substantial interest from Baltimore renters. Nearly 2,000 individuals had completed an online interest form as of August 2024, and 155 applicants have been approved as eligible shoppers, with 8 individuals successfully closing on homes. Buy Back the Block is one of a handful of Baltimore ARPA investments selected for external evaluation, which is being conducted by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance. The evaluation is currently in the planning stages and expected to be conducted in 2025.

Toward transformative change

Live Baltimore is focused on successfully implementing the Buy Back the Block program and aims to sustain it as an anti-displacement strategy even after ARPA funding ends, with hopes of securing additional resources for its continuation. By expanding eligibility to renters in QCTs, the program maintains its core mission of preventing displacement within Baltimore while ensuring distressed communities benefit from homeownership opportunities.

The program is designed to be simple, focusing on affordability and allowing renters to transition into homeownership. Many buyers have been women over the age of 60, whose stories highlight the transformative potential of homeownership for creating generational wealth. By passing down homes to their heirs, these buyers are fostering long-term financial stability for their families.

The full impact of this transformative change will be evaluated by the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, which will assess how the program's wealth transfers contribute to household and community outcomes over time.