Residents of a historically Black neighborhood in west Baltimore filed a complaint this week asking federal officials to investigate whether the city's redevelopment policies are violating fair housing laws by disproportionately displacing Black and low-income residents to make way for so-called urban renewal projects
Vacant homes, including one, bottom left, once rented by Angela Banks are visible with boarded doors and windows, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, in Baltimore. In 2018, Banks was told by her landlord that Baltimore officials were buying her family's home of four decades, planning to demolish the three-story brick rowhouse to make room for an urban renewal project aimed at transforming their historically Black neighborhood. Banks and her children became homeless almost overnight.
Once relatively common in American cities, using the practice for revitalization and infrastructure projects has largely fallen out of favor. Some cities are currently working to provide, acknowledging the harm caused by urban renewal efforts and other discriminatory practices. In 1910, Baltimore leaders enacted the country’s first residential segregation ordinance that restricted African American homeowners to certain blocks.
Construction of the thoroughfare was never finished — partly because residents in more affluent neighborhoods successfully campaigned against it — and the endeavor became largely pointless. Mayor Brandon Scott, who took office in 2020, pledged his commitment to “advancing fairness and equity in housing for all residents.” In a statement Thursday, he said his administration “has taken significant steps to address the housing inequities of the past through substantial investments in formerly redlined communities.”
Her complaint lists a series of potential remedies, including additional compensation and priority access to affordable housing for displaced residents. She filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which said it was unable to comment on pending investigations.
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