BALTIMORE — A city of red tents began materializing on a lawn outside Baltimore City Hall at the crack of dawn Wednesday.
It’s an installation by the Black Community Development Coalition to call attention to a growing homelessness challenge in Baltimore – tent encampments springing up across the city. The newly-formed group is calling on the city to assist and house people who are homeless.
The coalition said it has noticed about 11 encampments across the city.
“It’s rough out there,” advocate Woodrow McFadden said. “It’s hard. Sometimes people lose their homes and everything, their job, and it’s kind of hard, you know, getting housing.”
McFadden works with the coalition now, but used to be homeless himself.
“Our homeless individuals, they are constituents in districts,” advocate Christina Flowers said. “They are citizens in these communities as well.”
WJZ was there last week when they held a news conference at an encampment on the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Pratt Street.
“Where is the money?” Flowers said last week. “We are looking at so much extra funding in our city coming from the federal, coming from different agencies, coming from COVID relief, and we’re not seeing our most vulnerable population benefiting from (it).”
Later that day, Mayor Brandon Scott said the city is taking steps to end homelessness in Baltimore.
Scott’s office also announced last week a second round of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding totaling roughly $6.6 million is being deployed to groups to offset homelessness.
The city is working on five projects to reduce the problem, which includes providing emergency housing for those who need it, and developing longer-term housing.
So far this year, the city has provided housing for nearly 700 families.
WJZ asked advocates how long they plan to have these tents outside City Hall. They say they will not come down until changes are made.