Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced that Baltimore City exceeded its goals that were set in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, states, municipalities, and tribes through HUD’s House America initiative.

Baltimore is one of 105 communities across 31 states and territories and the District of Columbia that joined the initiative Secretary Fudge launched in partnership with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness as an all-hands-on-deck effort to address the nation’s homelessness crisis. Mayor Scott committed to House America in May of 2022. Over the course of the year, Baltimore City has housed 1443 households and added over 2500 affordable housing units in the development pipeline, partly with federal funding support and technical assistance from HUD.

“We were very intentional in our effort to meet the needs of our neighbors experiencing homelessness,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “I’m so pleased we not only met but exceeded our 2022 goals, and we will keep striving to make homelessness a rare and brief occurrence. “A few key things we’ve planned to keep our momentum going include:

• We established the parameters for the Rapid Resolution and Flex Fund, and we will kick off shelter diversion training this spring.
• We issued an RFP for Rapid Rehousing, and contracts have been approved by the City’s Board of Estimates. We are in the process of enrolling households in this program.
• And we are creating a Housing Accelerator Fund to help build and revitalize more affordable housing and grow our housing supply.” 

“The City of Baltimore has responded with urgency to address its homelessness crisis,” said HUD Regional Administrator Matthew Heckles. “Congratulations on achieving the goals you set when joining the House America initiative and thank you for all you are doing for your community. HUD is excited to continue working with you to eradicate homelessness and achieve housing stability in Baltimore.”

“Over 1,400 Baltimoreans were rehoused in 2022 and this achievement is representative of the hard work of the entire homeless services community,” said Irene Agustin, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services. “Our work is rooted in community input, data, and best practices. With House America as the foundation, we will continue to make progress and align with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’ (USICH) goal of reducing homelessness by 25% by 2025.”

Nationally, the House America effort housed more than 100,000 households experiencing homelessness and added over 40,000 affordable housing units into development, exceeding the goal HUD Secretary Fudge set in September 2021 when she challenged state and local leaders to collectively place at least 100,000 households experiencing homelessness into permanent housing and add at least 20,000 new units of deeply affordable and supportive housing into their development pipelines by December 2022.

“The Biden-Harris Administrations’ deployment of a Housing First approach, using American Rescue Plan Act funding and other resources, has helped catapult our work to end homelessness and create affordable housing,” said Baltimore City Housing Commissioner Alice Kennedy. “The Mayor’s Leadership Committee on Homelessness and Housing has been greatly encouraged by this unprecedented commitment of resources and remains committed to this ongoing work.”

A fact sheet on House America progress is available here. View the City’s House America Tracker here.