Reinvest Baltimore Uplifts Southeast Community Development Corporation to Boost Legacy Homeownership and Reduce Vacancy

As part of the Reinvest Baltimore initiative, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development has begun a series highlighting DHCD’s work with its partners to transform the city. For more information, please visit our Reinvest Baltimore website.

Ellwood Park, a small, historically Black neighborhood in Southeast Baltimore, has been home to generations of families from many different countries. However, over the past 20 years, vacancy rates in the Ellwood Park community have climbed higher, and homeownership opportunities have become farther out of reach.

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and Southeast Community Development Corporation agree: Homeownership for legacy Baltimoreans and the redevelopment of disinvested neighborhoods can and should be achieved at the same time. With DHCD support, Southeast CDC will continue to renovate vacant property in Ellwood Park, including up to 47 currently vacant residential properties – tackling both problems at once.

The Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative (BVRI) is part of Reinvest Baltimore, an initiative established through Governor Moore’s 2024 executive order to generate cross-sector partnership to address the challenge of vacant properties in Baltimore City neighborhoods. This executive order also established the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Council which has tapped key community, corporate, philanthropic and government leaders to leverage targeted investments to move at least 5,000 vacant properties into homeownership or other positive outcomes over the next five years.

One of Southeast Community Development Corporation’s target blocks is the 500 block of N. East Ave. Since 2021, Southeast CDC has renovated and sold five homes on the block, is under contract to purchase another two, and an additional six homes have been sold to homeowners or are under renovation by private owners. (Photo credit: Southeast CDC)

In July, Southeast CDC received critical funding to its mission in the form of a Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative award, a unique funding partnership between the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (MD DHCD) and the Maryland Community Investment Corporation.

On July 7, Governor Moore announced $30 million in BVRI funding that will go toward 16 community development organizations – including Southeast CDC – and their development partners.

“We are excited to be among the list of groups which will receive BVRI funding,” said Carla Paisley, Southeast CDC Executive Director. “These funds will be used to support our organization’s ability to purchase, rehab, market and sell homes on targeted blocks to legacy residents of Southeast Baltimore.”

It’s work that the organization has been doing for years.

Southeast CDC is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, with its community development work going back to working with Butchers Hill residents to land bank residential properties in the 1980s and developing 10 rental properties on North Broadway in the late 1990s, properties they still own.

With neighbors, Southeast CDC installed string lights and initiated a Green Team that plants and maintains the tree wells and container gardens on the same block shown above. (Photo credit: Southeast CDC)

After a strategic planning process, the group decided to purchase and rehab vacant properties in 2020 in communities with declining homeownership. That same year, Southeast CDC began meeting with Ellwood Park residents to chart their goals for their neighborhood. Friends, neighbors, and family members came together to advocate for their shared community.

Their first two goals – to make Ellwood Park safer and healthier for homeowners and renters, and to ensure clean and beautiful areas – reflect the consequences of high vacancy rates.

DHCD has supported Southeast CDC’s work in Ellwood Park and other neighborhoods – Baltimore Highlands and McElderry Park – supplying close to $1.9 million in grants from DHCD’s State Revitalization Program funds: Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative,The Seed Community Development Anchor Institution Fund and Community Health and Safety Works. The money was used for whole block improvements such as upgrades to the neighborhood park (Ellwood Avenue Park), lighting and traffic calming, community clean-ups, residential facade improvements, and container gardens.

Through this overall work, Southeast CDC discovered that the connection between vacancy reduction and homeownership was not always obvious to potential partners. Funding through this recent Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative award and support from the Department’s team will help to bridge messaging gaps and widen Southeast CDC’s network for outreach and teamwork.

For Paisley, Reinvest Baltimore “accelerates our work by calling attention to the many benefits of mitigation of vacant properties. When families have safe places to live, children are able to maintain strong school attendance, residents take pride in their neighborhoods, community vibrancy flourishes and Baltimore City becomes the blueprint for elimination of concentrations of vacant properties.”

Southeast CDC is not just rehabbing homes – they are restoring communities, family stories, and futures. And the coalition created by Reinvest Baltimore, from city and state government to local leaders, is helping to make sure those stories are known.

A block on North East Avenue after Southeast CDC’s efforts. (Photo credit: Southeast CDC)

Vacancy reduction is just one pillar of Southeast CDC’s ongoing mission. Their team supports commercial growth and builds out arts programming, while also providing housing counseling and family support for Ellwood Park and beyond. Their work is far from over, but through partnership, it is more possible than ever before.

“This work encourages community longevity and by enabling longtime residents the opportunity to age in place, it encourages generational wealth by facilitating homeownership for residents who are preparing to purchase and strengthens community by rehabilitating blighted properties and ensuring that families return to neighborhoods that have experienced flight,” said Paisley. “We are thankful to continue our work with the support of DHCD.”

To learn more about Reinvest Baltimore and loans awarded through the Baltimore Vacants Reinvestment Initiative, visit https://dhcd.maryland.gov/Reinvest-Baltimore/Pages/default.aspx.