Department Of Housing

A federal judge has ruled that a Baltimore public housing discrimination lawsuit should go forward, rejecting arguments from government lawyers that residents can freely choose whether to live in subsidized, often racially segregated, housing. The distinction is important because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that government agencies have a greater obligation to desegregate institutions where participation is not voluntary, such as attendance at public schools. "Of course there is no law that compels people to abide in public housing," U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis said in a ruling Thursday.

Mayor Martin O'Malley will join a city wrecking crew this morning in tearing down five vacant houses in West Baltimore as part of a program to demolish 2,226 blighted homes and public housing units by next summer. The five houses to be flattened today along West North Avenue are among more than 456 condemned houses and 1,810 public and subsidized apartments scheduled to be torn down as part of the Mayor's Blight Elimination Initiative. The city took possession of many of the houses through an earlier program of the mayor's called Project 5000, which seeks to take title to abandoned homes with the goal of reselling them or replacing them with new construction.

The City Council's budget committee begins a week of hearings today to discuss financial details of Mayor Martin O'Malley's proposed $2.2 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. City budget officials at noon will begin the presentations with an overview of a plan that would boost spending by 3.2 percent from the current fiscal year if approved by the council later this month. Representatives from the fire and health departments, the state's attorney's office and Enoch Pratt Free Library will follow with reports on their individual budgets at City Hall's Curran Conference Room.

WASHINGTON - Lost amid the debate over President Bush's effort to cut taxes and revamp Medicare is an attempt to reshape the program that provides housing assistance to the poor. The Bush administration wants to change Section 8 from a program that gives rent vouchers to nearly 2 million low-income families to a system of block grants that states would control. With $1 billion to $2 billion worth of vouchers lost each year to fraud and mismanagement, Bush administration officials argue that Section 8 needs an overhaul.

Faced with dwindling federal aid and an aging housing stock, several Baltimore-area housing authorities are pursuing a unique partnership that would allow them to issue $60 million in bonds to make sorely needed improvements at public housing neighborhoods. Roofs would be replaced, central air conditioning installed and housing units made accessible to the disabled with revenue from the bond package, which officials hope to issue this spring. The housing authorities of Baltimore City, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and Howard County are among the local agencies that hope to partner with the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Faced with dwindling federal aid and an aging housing stock, several Baltimore-area housing authorities are pursuing a unique partnership that would allow them to issue $60 million in bonds to make sorely needed improvements at public housing neighborhoods. Roofs would be replaced, central air conditioning installed and housing units made accessible to the disabled with revenue from the bond package, which officials hope to issue this spring. The housing authorities of Baltimore City, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and Howard County are among the local agencies that hope to partner with the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Faced with dwindling federal aid and an aging housing stock, several Baltimore-area housing authorities are pursuing a unique partnership that would allow them to issue $60 million in bonds to make sorely needed improvements at public housing neighborhoods. Roofs would be replaced, central air conditioning installed and housing units made accessible to the disabled with revenue from the bond package, which officials hope to issue this spring. The housing authorities of Baltimore City, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and Howard County are among the local agencies that hope to partner with the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

A dispute between the local housing authority and a developer is again threatening the fate of an unusual state plan to build waterfront public housing in Annapolis. A&R Development Corp. of Baltimore has threatened to stop work on the $8.4 million new Bloomsbury Square project along College Creek, accusing the Annapolis Housing Authority and its board chairwoman of intentionally delaying approval of a final contract. "It almost appears that the process is deliberately being delayed for surreptitious reasons," wrote development manager Anthony Rogers in a Nov. 18 letter to the state Department of General Services that was obtained by The Sun. "A&R is being held as a financial hostage to the unhurried process of a select few at the Housing Authority."

Blocks of vacant houses, many boarded or cinder-blocked to deter squatters, have become a familiar part of Baltimore's landscape, a reminder that urban renewal still has far to go. According to the latest report by the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy of the Brookings Institution, it's a sign of the times. Vacant-property issues are a result of the city's decline in population, businesses and jobs during the 1990s, according to the Brookings report, which examines the plight and possibilities of Baltimore and Philadelphia - cities with thriving downtown areas, juxtaposed with a substantial overall loss of population and a trend of economic disinvestment.

As the first event in an initiative to return vacant properties to productive use, Baltimore is offering six properties in historic Reservoir Hill for sale and rehabilitation. Applications will be available at an open house to be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at 2320 Eutaw Place. The six homes will be featured and open for inspection. The starting point, 2320 Eutaw Place, one of the offered homes, is a vacant shell, stabilized by the city with a new roof and 12-foot ceilings. This home is primed for restoration.