Baltimore’s Housing Crisis

Baltimore has a huge abandoned housing problem. Many of the city’s residents blame the problems on “white flight”, which means the abandonment of properties or market selling properties because of white property owner’s racism. Many opinion pieces on this subject are found in the Baltimore Sun, one of Baltimore’s premier news publications.

Whether or not racism is to blame for Baltimore’s problems or decades long of Democrat rule over the city is debatable, but one thing is for sure: the problem does exist and politicians need to address it.

About 8% of Baltimore’s total housing stock is deemed unfit for habitation. This means that the housing units do not have running water or heating. Many of the houses also have caved in roofs, broken windows, and other generally material issues with the properties.

The city has a lot of power of these properties as many of them are actually owned by the city. Yet, the city of Baltimore does absolutely nothing to fix this issue. Having a long history of corrupt Baltimore mayors which were Democrats, the city looks to be heading in a stagnate to dwindling situation long term.

Most of the abandoned housing is also in very poor areas, as one would expect. The reader of the infographic can see that most of the abandoned houses are in areas were poverty is at 33.9% to a whopping 73.7%. The lack of jobs and community development in these areas are alarming. With no one helping Baltimore, it looks as the city will be left for dead.