Housing Association

Edward A. Supplee Sr., 81, bank vice president Edward Arthurs Supplee Sr., a retired Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. vice president who had been an influential member of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, died of heart failure Sunday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Roland Park resident was 81. Born and raised in Guilford, Mr. Supplee was a 1939 graduate of Gilman School. After earning his bachelor's degree in Latin from Princeton University in 1943, he served with an Army artillery company in the Pacific and also in the occupation of Japan.

A key City Council committee backed Wednesday the indefinite extension of law that requires developers to build affordable housing units along with market-rate homes, but it is unclear how the measure will fare when the full council takes it up next week. The 2007 law requires developers to set aside a percentage of homes, condominiums or apartments in large developments that receive significant public subsidies or meet other criteria to be sold or rented at lower rates. Advocates of affordable housing say the law was watered down in 2007 when the council — following the recommendations of a panel of developers — passed nearly 100 amendments, including some that slowed the implementation of the law. Only one development, Union Mill in Hampden, has triggered the set-aside, resulting in the construction of 10 affordable units.

After years of delays in getting Fort Howard redeveloped as a retirement community for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday scrapped those plans and said it will seek a new partner for the project. Fort Howard Senior Housing Association had signed a 75-year lease with the VA in 2004 to build what would have been the nation's largest continuing-care community for veterans. But the project, Bayside at Fort Howard, had become enmeshed in disputes over building permits, zoning regulations and taxes.

After years of delays in getting Fort Howard redeveloped as a retirement community for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday scrapped those plans and said it will seek a new partner for the project. Fort Howard Senior Housing Association had signed a 75-year lease with the VA in 2004 to build what would have been the nation's largest continuing-care community for veterans. But the project, Bayside at Fort Howard, had become enmeshed in disputes over building permits, zoning regulations and taxes.

Boisclair Advertising Inc., which owns hundreds of illegal billboards around Baltimore, has decided not to appeal a court ruling ordering it to remove the signs.Leaders in the predominantly low-income, black neighborhoods where most of the billboards are found have long protested them, saying they are eyesores and undermine community values by glorifying liquor and cigarettes."Great!" Sylvia D. Fulwood, director of East Baltimore Midway/Barclay Community Organization, said yesterday. "This means they have to come down."

HOUSING FORUMSCPHA offers program on development issuesThe Citizens Planning and Housing Association will hold a forum on "Community Development," the second in a series on "Housing for the '90s," from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday at the Robert Coleman Elementary School, 2400 Windsor Ave.The forum will feature Robert Hill and Elva Tillman of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. Amy Glorioso, a city planner with Baltimore's Department of Housing and Community Development, will be the closing speaker.

HOUSING FORUMSPlanning group offers series on '90s housing"Housing for the '90s" will be explored in a series of forums sponsored by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association. Each forum will include talks and panel discussions by city officials and community experts.The first forum, "Code Enforcement and Vacant Housing," will be held Saturday. It features John Huppert and Bob Dengler from Baltimore's housing inspection agency. The forum will include a panel discussion on code enforcement and alternatives to enforcement.

Boisclair Advertising Inc., which owns hundreds of illegal billboards around Baltimore, has decided not to appeal a court ruling ordering it to remove the signs.Leaders in the predominantly low-income, black neighborhoods where most of the billboards are found have long protested them, saying they are eyesores and undermine community values by glorifying liquor and cigarettes."Great!" Sylvia D. Fulwood, director of East Baltimore Midway/Barclay Community Organization, said yesterday. "This means they have to come down."

The Morris Goldseker Foundation of Maryland Inc. has issued 24 new grants, totaling about $1,150,000, to local and statewide organizations ranging from the Citizens Planning and Housing Association to Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore Inc. Timothy D. Armbruster, president of the foundation, said that the foundation wanted to donate larger sums to a smaller number of Baltimore neighborhoods. The foundation also wanted to make donations specifically to help nonprofit organizations better themselves by, for example, hiring new management or improving technology.

A nonprofit housing development group wants to give some low-income renters a chance to feel pride of ownership -- without really owning a home -- through an innovative program that works much like a co-operative residence.The Mutual Housing Association of Baltimore plans to build 37 townhouses in the southwestern edge of the city and then, for the most part, allow low-income residents to run the neighborhood.It would be the second such development in the city.Alameda Place, at The Alameda and Cold Spring Lane, was the first Mutual Housing development in the country.

Edward A. Supplee Sr., 81, bank vice president Edward Arthurs Supplee Sr., a retired Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. vice president who had been an influential member of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, died of heart failure Sunday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Roland Park resident was 81. Born and raised in Guilford, Mr. Supplee was a 1939 graduate of Gilman School. After earning his bachelor's degree in Latin from Princeton University in 1943, he served with an Army artillery company in the Pacific and also in the occupation of Japan.

Increasing public transportation, limiting suburban sprawl and revitalizing older neighborhoods are among the issues to be discussed today at a rally to promote regionalism throughout Baltimore and its surrounding counties. About 2,000 people are expected to attend Rally for the Region 2002, sponsored by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) at the Baltimore Convention Center. CPHA, a coalition of organizations from Baltimore and the five surrounding metropolitan counties, has raised its profile in recent years.

Increasing public transportation, limiting suburban sprawl and revitalizing older neighborhoods are among the issues to be discussed today at a rally to promote regionalism throughout Baltimore and its surrounding counties. About 2,000 people are expected to attend Rally for the Region 2002, sponsored by the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA) at the Baltimore Convention Center. CPHA, a coalition of organizations from Baltimore and the five surrounding metropolitan counties, has raised its profile in recent years.

The Morris Goldseker Foundation of Maryland Inc. has issued 24 new grants, totaling about $1,150,000, to local and statewide organizations ranging from the Citizens Planning and Housing Association to Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore Inc. Timothy D. Armbruster, president of the foundation, said that the foundation wanted to donate larger sums to a smaller number of Baltimore neighborhoods. The foundation also wanted to make donations specifically to help nonprofit organizations better themselves by, for example, hiring new management or improving technology.

Tri-Churches Housing offers homebuyer classTri-Churches Housing is offering a free, three-part Homebuyer Education Class at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 7, 14 and 21 in the upper hall of St. Jerome's Head Start Center, 765 W. Hamburg St.Sponsored by North American Mortgage Co., the sessions are designed to give participants an opportunity to meet with industry professionals and receive information on the home-buying process.Topics include working with a Realtor, how to tell the condition of a home, getting grants for closing costs, qualifying for a loan, appraisals and settlements.

Give boarded and vacant houses to the homeless to live in. Demolish the empty houses and plant trees and flowers on the lots. Or maybe create urban villages in the demolished blocks, complete with shopping centers, transit stops and recreation centers.Those were among the suggested solutions to problems caused by Baltimore's "undercrowding" -- a term, coined by a Yale professor for when housing units persistently exceed thenumber of people seeking housing -- at a symposium yesterday sponsored by the Citizens Planning & Housing Association (CPHA)

A key City Council committee backed Wednesday the indefinite extension of law that requires developers to build affordable housing units along with market-rate homes, but it is unclear how the measure will fare when the full council takes it up next week. The 2007 law requires developers to set aside a percentage of homes, condominiums or apartments in large developments that receive significant public subsidies or meet other criteria to be sold or rented at lower rates. Advocates of affordable housing say the law was watered down in 2007 when the council — following the recommendations of a panel of developers — passed nearly 100 amendments, including some that slowed the implementation of the law. Only one development, Union Mill in Hampden, has triggered the set-aside, resulting in the construction of 10 affordable units.

Detailing a twin effort to stabilize neighborhoods while razing thousands of properties, Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III outlined his attack on Baltimore's vacant and blighted housing yesterday.On one hand, he'll pursue an aggressive demolition campaign in a city he says has 16,000 too many properties. On the other, he'll work with community groups to raze the most troublesome structures without leaving behind gap-toothed blocks where empty lots squat beside empty rowhouses.All the while, the commissioner said, he and other city officials are working to increase at a clip of 5 percent a year the number of city blocks considered "stable" -- meaning no abandoned dwellings and property values that are stable or increasing.

Detailing a twin effort to stabilize neighborhoods while razing thousands of properties, Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III outlined his attack on Baltimore's vacant and blighted housing yesterday.On one hand, he'll pursue an aggressive demolition campaign in a city he says has 16,000 too many properties. On the other, he'll work with community groups to raze the most troublesome structures without leaving behind gap-toothed blocks where empty lots squat beside empty rowhouses.All the while, the commissioner said, he and other city officials are working to increase at a clip of 5 percent a year the number of city blocks considered "stable" -- meaning no abandoned dwellings and property values that are stable or increasing.