Baltimore officials approved a program that would sell city-owned vacant homes for as little as $1.
The city’s Board of Estimates voted on the program during a meeting on Wednesday morning, despite pushback from City Council President Nick Mosby.
The board passed the new pricing structure for city-owned vacant homes on the “Buy Into BMore” website in a four-to-one vote where Mosby was the sole opposition.
Baltimore has over 13,500 vacant properties, nearly 900 of which are owned by the city, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development.
The fixed-price program would only apply to certain city-owned properties, according to a page on DHCD’s website.
Buyers need to promise to fix up the homes
Those purchasing a home in the program must promise to renovate the property and have at least $90,000 to fix it up. Owners must also move in within a year, and stay in the home for five years.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mosby said the program does not have guardrails written in place that would ensure city residents had priority to buy these homes and won’t be forced out of these neighborhoods when their conditions improve.
“If affordability and affordable home ownership and equity and all of the nice words we like to use are really at the core competency as it relates to property disposition, this is a really bad policy,” Mosby said. “This is a bad policy because it doesn’t protect or prioritize the rights of folks in these communities.”
Who can buy a home for $1?
As part of the program, only individual buyers and community land trusts would be able to purchase the properties for $1. Nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees would pay $1,000 while developers and nonprofits with more than 50 employees would have to pay $3,000.
