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To fight vacant housing, Baltimore turns to the blockchain

Jan 29, 2024
The city hopes the technology behind cryptocurrency can streamline transactions. It's part of a proposed plan to address blight.
Someone once painted 1415 Myrtle Ave. in Baltimore sky blue; it's been vacant since at least 2016. A pilot program would record all of the now 13,600 vacant properties in the city on the blockchain.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

Millions of dilapidated houses sit vacant in the U.S. A Colorado college program aims to change that.

May 11, 2023
Construction students get blighted homes back on the market under the auspices of a community college program.
Jerry Begley, construction training program manager at Trinidad State College, points to the century-old earthen interior of a COPERR program project in the west end of town.
Dan Boyce

A fire in Baltimore threatens effort to rebuild

Nov 16, 2021
And shows why restoring distressed neighborhoods can be so hard.
Shelley Halstead assesses the damage after a fire burned through a building she owns in Baltimore.
Dena Fisher

An abandoned block is reborn in West Baltimore

Nov 10, 2021
In 2019, Poinsetta McKnight was one of the last homeowners living on her block. Now with seven restored homes, “I’m seeing it come up.”
Black Women Build - Baltimore threw a party in October to celebrate the progress on the block.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

Reparations fund will help Black women build houses — and wealth

Apr 29, 2021
A Baltimore church that worked against Black homeownership is now investing in it.
Bryanna Vellines, 28, installs a window frame in an old Baltimore row house.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

An archaeological dig in urban Baltimore reveals a forgotten past

Jan 7, 2021
It's part of a movement to make the field more accessible and inclusive.
Dena Fisher

Transforming a blighted block into a community of Black women homeowners

Aug 11, 2020
A Baltimore program helps Black women build wealth through homeownership.
At 28, Quanshay Henderson bought her first house — and helped restore it —  through Black Women Build.
Amy Scott/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

Why can’t Baltimore solve its vacant housing problem?

Jul 8, 2020
Despite thousands of demolitions and rehabs, the number of empty buildings has barely budged for a decade.
A vacant house is for sale on North Payson Street in Baltimore. In 2016, an abandoned building down the block collapsed and killed a man.
Amy Scott/Marketplace