Tackling Housing Insecurity – Baltimore’s Homelessness and Housing Initiative

Homelessness and affordable housing are connected in a big way.Mayor Brandon M. Scott has asked two important city offices to work together to make things better. These offices are the Mayor's Office of Homeless Services and the Department of Housing & Community Development. They have teamed up to use money from the Federal government. This money is for COVID-19 relief to make homelessness rare and brief, and housing affordable for all residents. 

In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) gave money to Baltimore because of COVID-19. The Mayor is using this money to help the city after the impact of the virus. The goal is to make smart choices about where the money goes and make sure everyone in the city gets what they need. 

To make sure everything is done well, the Mayor made a new office called the Mayor's Office of Recovery Programs (MORP) in July 2021. This office is in charge of handling all the money from ARPA. They share with the government and everyone who lives in the city what they're doing with the money. 

In May 2022, the Mayor teamed up with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) for a special project called "House America." 

House America is a big effort across the whole country. It's a team-up between HUD, USICH, mayors, county leaders, Tribal nation leaders, and governors. They want to use money from the American Rescue Plan to help with the problem of homelessness. They believe in a "Housing First" approach. This means they want to help homeless people find homes right away and also build more homes for them. 

House America gets money from the American Rescue Plan and other sources, like the government. In Baltimore, they have a goal: they want to help at least 1,000 families who don't have homes find a place to live. They also want to build 1,605 new homes that people can afford, including 597 that are very affordable, in the year 2022. They are working hard to make sure everyone has a safe and cozy place to call home. 

Update: On February 14, 2023, Mayor Scott announced that Baltimore had reached its House America goals. By December 31, 2022, over 1,400 neighbors had been rehoused and over 2,500 units of affordable housing had been added to the development. 

The Leadership Committee on Homelessness and Housing was created to help Baltimore reach its House America goals. It also will put into action projects funded by ARPA to deal with homelessness and housing.  

Director Irene Agustin from the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services and Commissioner Alice Kennedy from the Department of Housing & Community Development lead the committee.  

The committee works closely with Baltimore City’s Continuum of Care (CoC) to make sure things run smoothly.  
The Leadership Committee has three smaller groups:  

Steering Committee: This group makes sure everything goes according to the plan.  

Rehousing Workgroup: This team focuses on six things: