‘This fiasco is wildly concerning’: Tenants face eviction after city misses payments

By Barry Simms

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    BALTIMORE (WBAL) — The Baltimore City Council held a hearing Tuesday to discuss after promised rent assistance went unpaid, leaving some tenants to face eviction.

Many Baltimore residents rely on assistance from the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services and Service Providers. It has contracts with organizations like Dayspring and Community Housing Associates. Those agencies get federal money from the city to pay rent.

“Access to housing is a human right, and the threat of eviction or eviction is a traumatic experience for anyone,” City Council President Nick Mosby said.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the city council wanted to know about the various issues, including when the funds arrive from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The executive director said the office is experiencing other challenges, including staff turnover and training.

“We do have to make improvements, not only the work that we are doing with our providers and to make sure when these issues of evictions or issues with landlords come up, that the providers are addressing that,” Irene Augustin said.

She said the office is not making any excuses. It is committing to fixing the payment issues and now has written standard operating procedures, something it did not have before. It is also working with the Baltimore City Department of Finance.

“It is very difficult to have trust any longer, as a small landlord, when we are asked to financially support many families with no funds,” Andrea Campo said.

Landlords and tenants told the City Council how the funding delays have impacted them. Kimberly Brown has throat cancer. She has received five rent court notices. She had her mother, Sandra Jones, speak for her.

“In August, after my third surgery, I received an eviction notice indicating I had to be out by Aug. 29, and that was on Aug. 7,” she said.

Councilmembers had plenty of questions, including what happened to a $10 million grant and unused funding that had to be returned to HUD.

“This entire fiasco is wildly concerning (and) puts the city’s finances in jeopardy,” Councilman Eric Costello said.

Councilmembers also asked why they had not been informed about the issue before and why it wasn’t brought up during the budget process.

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