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Baltimore Housing Boom Leaves Less Room for Poor

Sign of the times: Many out-of-town investors are buying up abandoned or dilapidated property in Baltimore in hopes of a quick turnaround.
Eric Niiler, NPR
Sign of the times: Many out-of-town investors are buying up abandoned or dilapidated property in Baltimore in hopes of a quick turnaround.
Lifelong East Baltimore resident Tina Collins has been kicked out of her house three times.
Eric Niiler, NPR /
Lifelong East Baltimore resident Tina Collins has been kicked out of her house three times.

Baltimore's inner city is on the rebound. After decades of population loss and urban decay in Baltimore, out-of-town investors are pouring money into hundreds of abandoned properties.

The renovations are putting a shiny new face on the city, but some people worry this real estate speculation may lead to a repeat of the financial meltdown that occurred two decades ago. The city's current real estate boom is already displacing some poor residents.

East Baltimore alone has lost a thousand units of affordable housing in the last five years. Many long-time, low-income residents are being moved into rent-subsidized properties in the suburbs, far from their local churches and schools. Tina Collins, 41, is one of them.

"Well me and my daughter have been displaced from our homes three times," Collins said. "Landlords are deciding to sell the property because the market's hot right now. At one time, we were homeless for six months."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eric Niiler
Eric Niiler reports for NPR's national desk. His work can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and other NPR newsmagazines. Before moving to his current post, Niiler was a reporter for NPR's Day to Day program, and also filed pieces for NPR's national and science desks.