How Baltimore's Mayor Is Fighting the City's Vacant Housing Crisis
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott discusses his administration's multi-pronged strategy to address the city's longstanding vacant housing crisis, which has kept vacancy numbers stagnant at around 16,000 for 20 years. He explains how coordinated capital from the state, city TIF financing, and community partnerships has reduced vacancies to under 12,000, alongside a dramatic reduction in violent crime from 300+ homicides annually to 133. The interview took place at the CityLab conference in Madrid.
Summary
Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore speaks with the Odd Lots podcast hosts about the city's vacant housing crisis and his administration's efforts to address it. Scott opens by framing the problem as deeply personal — he grew up in Baltimore in the 1980s and 90s, in a neighborhood shaped by racial redlining, deindustrialization, and the drug crisis. He notes that Baltimore is the birthplace of racial redlining, and that the modern vacancy map of the city overlaps almost perfectly with the 1937 redlining map, a pattern locals call the 'black butterfly and white L.'
Scott explains that when he took office in December 2020, Baltimore had roughly 16,000 vacant properties — the same number as in December 2000, despite decades of prior mayoral efforts. He argues that previous administrations were not ineffective per se, but that the core problem was a lack of sustained capital and a multi-term strategic vision. His administration addressed this by building a 15-year community-wide strategy called 'Reframe Baltimore,' developed in partnership with BUILD (a community organizing coalition), the private sector, philanthropists, and community development corporations. Shortly after launching the strategy, Maryland's new governor committed $50 million per year in state funding to the effort.
Scott describes the legal and bureaucratic complexity of reclaiming vacant properties, which are mostly privately owned. The city must issue citations, wait 30 days, escalate fines, issue vacant building notices, and potentially go through receivership in court — a process that previously took 2-3 years but has been shortened through a dedicated court docket. He introduces Baltimore's innovative use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) across non-contiguous areas citywide — a first-of-its-kind application of the tool that skeptics said would fail. The city offered $28 million in TIF financing and received $380 million in applications, proving strong demand for investment in historically disinvested neighborhoods.
Scott emphasizes block-by-block planning as central to the strategy, ensuring that developments match neighborhood aesthetics and needs, and that a mix of housing types — affordable, market rate, homeownership, and senior living — is incorporated. He expresses concern about displacement and gentrification, referencing Washington D.C.'s transformation from 'chocolate city to latte city,' and explains programs like 'Buy Back the Block' to convert renters into homeowners.
On violence reduction, Scott describes a dramatic shift away from mass-arrest policing — noting that in 2004, Baltimore made 91,000 arrests while recording 278 homicides, versus 17,000 arrests and 133 homicides last year. His approach centers on the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS), which uses data to identify individuals most likely to be involved in gun violence and offers them services and a warning. Over 90% of participants have not reoffended. The city also invested $50 million in community violence intervention, pursued legal action against irresponsible gun dealers (winning the largest settlement against a gun store in U.S. history), and focused on gun trafficking.
Scott identifies the decline in violence as the single most important factor in attracting private investment back to Baltimore. He also discusses the city's competitive advantages for tech and defense industries — its proximity to Washington D.C. (29 minutes by train), Fort Meade, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland — as well as ongoing revitalization of the Inner Harbor. The conversation closes with Scott recommending Baltimore tourism highlights including Coco's Pub crab cakes, a Black Panther costume exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery, and the Artscape Festival.
Key Insights
- Mayor Scott argues that Baltimore's vacancy problem remained essentially unchanged at ~16,000 units for 20 years not due to lack of know-how, but due to lack of sustained capital and the political habit of framing solutions within a single mayoral term rather than a multi-decade strategy.
- Scott claims that the 1937 racial redlining map and the 2020 vacant housing map of Baltimore are almost perfectly overlapping, demonstrating that vacancy is a direct legacy of deliberate government-sanctioned disinvestment rather than organic economic decline.
- Scott argues that Baltimore pioneered the use of TIF financing across non-contiguous, scattered-site properties citywide — a first-of-its-kind application that critics said wouldn't work, but which generated $380 million in applications against a $28 million offering.
- Scott contends that mass-arrest policing is demonstrably counterproductive, citing 2004 data where 91,000 arrests coincided with 278 homicides, versus 2024's 17,000 arrests and 133 homicides — arguing that targeting who is arrested and for what matters far more than sheer arrest volume.
- Scott describes the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) as sending direct personal letters from the mayor to individuals identified by data as most likely to be involved in gun violence, offering services and relocation help while warning of consequences — with over 90% of participants not reoffending.
- Scott argues that declining violence is the single most important factor unlocking private investment in Baltimore, noting that developers at industry conferences explicitly cited homicide rate thresholds as conditions for investment before his administration's progress.
- Scott criticizes the cultural depiction of Baltimore through shows like The Wire, arguing that unlike New York City — which has Seinfeld, Friends, and other varied cultural representations — Baltimore's entire national image is defined solely by crime-focused narratives, creating an unfair and one-dimensional perception.
- Scott frames the dollar-house model as a misunderstood solution, arguing that selling a vacant home for $1 solves nothing if the buyer lacks the $100,000–$150,000 needed for rehabilitation, and that many current vacants were originally sold for a dollar by previous administrations and never renovated.
Topics
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