Rehabbing starts today for East Baltimore homes

Project calls for letting displaced homeowners trade up

By Lorraine Mirabella

September 3, 2008

The group of homes at right, in the 1700 block of E. Chase St. in the Middle East neighborhood, is being renovated by the nonprofit group East Baltimore Development Inc. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / August 28, 2008)

Near the intersection of East Chase and McDonogh streets in East Baltimore, most rowhouses have shattered windows, boarded-up doors and weedy lots. The sign on the vacant corner grocery has faded.

These are among the 150 or so homes that are left after hundreds more were razed and residents displaced in the first phase of a huge urban renewal project just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital. East Baltimore Development Inc., the private nonprofit group transforming more than 100 acres of the Middle East neighborhood into a biotechnology park, housing, shops and offices, is now taking on its first big housing rehab project.

The goal is to attract buyers, who will pay an undetermined market rate, potentially from among the employees of Hopkins and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. But EBDI says it's also beginning to fulfill a promise to give displaced residents a chance to own a stake in the transformed community.

Plans call for restoring many of these homes to their late 19th-century appearance on the exterior and remodeling the interiors with energy-efficient features. EBDI will kick off the project today, starting with two homes on East Chase Street.

The group says it hopes to sell homes first to relocated residents or to those whose homes are being targeted in the next phase of development. Displaced homeowners will be eligible for a new "house-for-a-house" program to allow them to trade their old homes for the renovated ones.

Like the first relocations, in which nearly 400 households were moved out of Middle East, the next phase of development is stirring controversy.

So far, East Baltimore Development, in a partnership with developer Forest City Enterprises, has completed a biotech building and two apartment buildings. Some residents in the blocks slated for preservation worry that they're going to be pushed out.

"We have not had homeownership opportunities available, and that is why this is so important," said Jack Shannon, president and chief executive of EBDI. "It's something that has not been easy to accomplish but represents a critical milestone for us and for the community as well."

The Save Middle East Action Committee Inc, which represents area residents, said it is encouraged to see the first rehabs start and had worked with EBDI to come up with the house-for-a-house program. But representatives said they worry about this next phase of development and its impact on residents.

"We're discouraged by the fact that EBDI still seems to be intent on relocating more and more longtime homeowners out of the neighborhood," said Nathan Sooy, executive director of SMEAC. "There were many blocks ... that EBDI had said weren't going to be touched by eminent domain, that EBDI would purchase rental and vacant properties and leave homeowners alone. That is no longer the case."

Shannon, though, says EBDI has responded to such concerns by expanding the choices available to homeowners. A homeowner in the targeted area could decide to stay in his home if it meets building code standards. Otherwise, the homeowner would be given a relocation benefit, which could be used to purchase a home in the neighborhood or elsewhere. The amount of the benefit is still undetermined; it averaged $153,000 in the first phase. Donald Gresham, chairman of SMEAC and a 20-year homeowner in the largely low-income neighborhood, said most remaining homeowners would jump at the chance to own one of the newly rehabbed homes. But he said it has become more difficult and unsafe to stay with so many of the remaining homes boarded up. Gresham said he hopes to stay until he can buy a rehabbed home.

"It was a great idea, but it's not moving quick enough that the people will be able to stay," he said

So far, EBDI has acquired 22 of the targeted 150 homes, along the 1700 and 1800 blocks of East Chase St., the 1100 block of Rutland Ave. and the 1100 block of McDonogh St. Of the 150 homes, about 30 percent are occupied, Shannon said.

Of those, fewer than half are occupied by homeowners, and the rest are rentals, he said. Those homes are either north of East Chase Street or in an area bounded by Collington Avenue, Patterson Park Avenue, East Madison Street and Ashland Avenue.

In the project's first phase, EBDI acquired 916 properties, demolished more than 550 structures and excavated foundations of another 200 that had been previously razed, Shannon said. Of the 916 properties, about 30 percent were occupied. EBDI relocated 396 households, 150 of which owned their properties, Shannon said.

He said the homes slated for rehabilitation were left because "the Chase Street corridor is part of a historic district and an amazingly intact area in terms of the rowhouses that are still standing."

Besides the EBDI rehabs, Shannon said, some other housing development is taking place, including A&R Development's plans to build 49 new, for-sale townhouses and flats.