Middle Neighborhoods
Middle neighborhoods are those that are neither the most disinvested, nor wealthiest communities of Baltimore City. They have high but declining rates of homeownership. Middle neighborhoods have many assets but are vulnerable. Maintaining the stability of legacy Baltimore residents in these communities while attracting more Black middle income and immigrant families is vital for the City as a whole to support the Mayor’s Action Plan Pillar of Equitable Neighborhood Development.
As part of Baltimore City’s Middle Neighborhood Strategy, the City is committing $9.7M in ARPA funded investments in these communities including Wealth Building home repair grants for legacy residents ($ 4 million); INSPIRE development incentives operated by the Department of Housing and Community Development ($1.29 million) ; Buy the Block down payment assistance for tenants buying in their own neighborhood operated by LiveBaltimore ($3.4 million) and through the support of Healthy Neighborhood Inc. (HNI) community organizing support for the neighborhood-based organizations in these targeted areas to promote the availability of City and other resources to residents, build neighborhood capacity, as well as ensure that these resources are equitably deployed to benefit residents and neighborhoods ($1 million).
Middle Neighborhood Focus Areas
Of all 146 middle neighborhoods as of the 2017 Baltimore City Housing Market Typology, the ARPA-funded Middle Neighborhood initiatives will target 26 neighborhoods in five focus areas: Liberty Corridor, York Road Corridor, BENI Area, Edmondson Village Area, and the Middle Branch Area. These neighborhoods were prioritized based on a number of demographic, housing market, neighborhood school criteria, as well as alignment with current development initiatives.
