The Foundation encourages programs and projects that improve the appeal of Baltimore as a place to live, visit and do business, anchor and spur public and private investment in redevelopment, and expand the business and job base of Baltimore City. The Foundation recognizes the need to enhance the livability of neighborhoods and create desirable housing and commercial areas as a means to retain and attract both residents and jobs.

By encouraging investment in redevelopment projects and housing renovations, leveraging of public and private capital, community planning and maximizing reuse of historic structures, the Foundation focuses on those initiatives that foster improvement of downtown and neighborhoods. It further seeks to promote cost-efficient delivery of

Midtown Benefits District sanitation staff cleaning upeviction chattel from Biddle Street in December, 2006 before the Clean Streets law was passed.

municipal services, maximize Baltimore's use of competitive funding sources and increase the tax base. The Foundation also encourages efforts to tie the economic health of the City to the region and state, through the support of housing mobility, regional planning and growth management.

Areas of interest include:

• neighborhood revitalization
  
  
• downtown reinvestment
  
  
• vacant house renovation
  
  
• home ownership investment and preservation
  
  
• community planning and facilities
  
  
• regional problem-solving
  
  
• growth management
  
  
• heritage tourism
  
  
• alternative financial services
  
  
• energy-efficiency, green building and sustainable development
  
  
• efficient delivery of City services
  
  
• immigrant community support and advocacy
  
  
• community green space and tree planting

• food access and availability

Learn more about the community development initiatives funded by The Abell Foundation by visiting Publications/Research. More information is also available in our Highlights below.

Community Development Highlights

Ashoka/Community Greens
Baltimore may well be one of the first cities in the country to allow the creation of mini-parks, collectively owned and managed by neighbors whose homes surround the proposed green spaces. A petition for gating/greening must first be supported by 80 percent of the homeowners. Then the lengthy approval process begins. Ashoka is training neighborhood leaders and staff of neighborhood organizations and raising the awareness of the potential impact these projects can have. It is anticipated that crime rates will decrease, home values increase, and environmental environs improve.

Astor Court Apartments
For many years, The Abell Foundation has supported educational reform, introduced new curriculum and enrichment programs, encouraged alternative teacher certification, and emphasized the importance of teacher and principal recruitment in efforts to improve the quality of education for Baltimore City public school students. One of the most important determinants of increased student achievement is the quality of classroom teachers. Teachers new to the system often report being overwhelmed with the demands of their new jobs and lacking support for professional development. With modest beginning salaries, new teachers also have limited options in the housing market. Since the retention rate for new teachers is low, there is a continual need to hire a large number of new teachers each year. The challenge for the Baltimore City Public School System is to attract the best, brightest and most capable teachers into the schools. The Abell Foundation conceived of constructing apartments for teachers as a way to encourage new teachers to consider Baltimore over other cities and equally, as a retention tool to help support new teachers in their first years of teaching.

Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers
A joint project of the Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative and Aging Affinity Group, the Neighborhoods for All Ages is a collaborative effort among funders to address issues preventing seniors from remaining in their homes and being productive participants in their communities. The project offers outreach and home visitation assessment and referral to link seniors to available services and benefits and home repair grants to address home safety, comfort, accessibility and energy savings. The project is designed to assist 50 older residents in two neighborhoods for each of two years.

Baltimore City Heritage Area - National Heritage Area Management Plan
Baltimore has a rich historic past that is under recognized and under marketed nationally and internationally. Designation as a National Heritage Area (NHA) by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior would give the city's attractions an internationally recognized brand that denotes an area's unique historic significance and substance. Baltimore lags far behind other cities in accessing federal National Park Service (NPS) funds in support of their tourism and marketing efforts. The National Heritage Area Management Plan was approved and could give Baltimore up to $1 million annually in federal funding and additional tourist product development and marketing technical assistance support.

Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative
In the last several years, real estate values have risen in a number of Baltimore’s previously undervalued housing markets, giving homeowners the opportunity to realize gains in wealth as well as adding to the city’s tax base. The Baltimore Neighborhood Collaborative provides support for nonprofit organizations that provide pre- and post-purchase homeownership counseling, financial counseling and legal assistance, and targeted housing development. This support strengthens community development organizations working within targeted Baltimore neighborhoods to provide assistance to households at risk of or facing foreclosure.

Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc. (BENI)
For years housing values in Belair-Edison were stagnant, or falling, despite Baltimore City’s upward trend. Plagued by high numbers of foreclosures, BENI has developed quality homeownership and foreclosure counseling services. BENI is a leader in community-based marketing and outreach through direct and mass mailings, community banners, and block-level outreach. This direct marketing has convinced families to come to BENI’s office and get assistance with their mortgage issues. BENI is expanding its reach to the larger Northeast Baltimore region by partnering with community development corporations that do not have counseling capacity and by connecting with renters residing in Belair-Edison who are future homeowners.

Civic Works - Project Lightbulb
Project Lightbulb is a free energy efficiency and conservation program designed to help low income homeowners and renters reduce their energy consumption and save money by lowering their utility bills. The project focuses on light bulb replacement with CFL light bulbs, testing thermostats, water heater temperatures and refrigerator settings, and replacing showerheads and faucets with low-flow models. Results from the pilot project in two neighborhoods show resident savings of 53 kilowatt hours per month, or $8 dollars per household per month, a projected cumulative savings to residents of $31,000 in the first year.

Everyman Theatre
Capital funding was made available to the Everyman Theatre toward the renovation of the currently vacant, historic Town Theatre on the Westside as a permanent home for the theater. Everyman Theatre has grown from a small operation in 1990 with one play a year to an impressive professional theatre with five plays, each performed for six weeks, with over 4,000 subscribers and nearly 9,000 single ticket buyers. The redevelopment of the theater will complement the nearby renovation and programming of the Hippodrome Theatre and recent investments on the Westside including the Centrepoint apartments and mixed use development.

Food Research and Action Center/Maryland Hunger Solutions

Maryland Hunger Solutions designed a year-long pilot program to install Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) machines at three farmers’ markets to enable food stamp recipients to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables using their benefits cards. The three farmers’ markets participating in the pilot include Park Heights, Waverly and Highlandtown.

Healthy Neighborhoods (HNI)
To support homeowner investment and encourage new homebuyer purchases in 15 Baltimore neighborhoods, HNI created new loan products for home purchase and renovation. Twelve banks contributed to a $40 million loan pool of below-market rate financing and The Abell, Harry & Jeanette Weinberg and Goldseker Foundations, as well as the Maryland Housing Fund, provide partial loan guarantees. The loans are intended to create high standards for property improvement, increase home values and provide additional tools to market the neighborhoods to prospective home buyers. Each participating neighborhood group provides marketing, counseling, loan outreach and implementation of block projects such as lighting or landscaping that create a positive neighborhood image.

Inner Harbor Management Plan
In 2003, the Mayor's Inner Harbor Advisory Committee in 2003 concluded that a management entity to oversee the operation and upkeep of the Inner Harbor was necessary. The Baltimore Waterfront Partnership, a non-profit management entity funded from fees paid by businesses along the waterfront for the upkeep and maintenance of the grounds, was then created to address these concerns. Tourist attraction operators, merchants and other businesses were convened to learn more about what destinations visitors need directions to get to, and to determine what other area attractions should be included in a signage system. Wayfinder signage was also developed to provide continuity and uniformity in a cluttered and confusing landscape. These improvements will enhance the Inner Harbor's reputation as an attractive, user-friendly destination.

Job Opportunities Task Force
“Overpriced and Underserved” was funded by The Abell Foundation to examine the high cost of goods and services for low income consumers. The report calculates a $3,000 a year “poverty premium” in cost of living for everything from groceries, financial transactions, cars and home mortgages paid by low income Baltimore City residents compared to their neighbors outside of the city.

Maryland PIRG Foundation
As part of MaryPIRG’s statewide campaign to educate citizens and policymakers on the importance of increasing energy efficiency and conservation, The Abell Foundation funded their research and report, "Energy Saved, Dollars Earned: Real-World Examples of How Energy Efficiency Can Benefit Maryland Consumers". The report highlights national practices and case studies on residential, commercial and industrial efficiency programs that provide models for Maryland.

Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville - Slavie Federal Savings Bank
The Northeast Baltimore neighborhood of Lauraville has a high rate of homeownership and high quality housing, but the housing has typically been under assessed and undervalued. In 2001, Abell committed to guarantee ten percent of all home improvement loans Slavie Federal Savings Bank offered at below market rates. Slavie has made 21 loans for a combined value of $344,000 in home improvements. With continuing demand for the program, Slavie recently doubled its commitment with Abell guaranteeing ten percent. The nonprofit sponsor, Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, markets the program and pre-screens applicants.

Parks and People Foundation
As the City of Baltimore works to meet its goal of doubling the tree canopy over the next 30 years, Parks & People will support the attainment of this goal by providing large numbers of quality trees through the development of tree brokering and tree nursery businesses. In 2008, Parks & People, through a partnership with an east coast tree broker, sold 955 native species trees designed to withstand harsh urban environments to Baltimore City businesses and residents through its first tree sale.

Patterson Park Community Development Corporation
Alarmed that the number of vacant and foreclosed houses in the neighborhoods north and east of Patterson Park soared in the mid-1990’s, Patterson Park Community Development Corporation formed in 1996 to reinvest in housing through purchase, renovation and resale to homeowners or rent to responsible tenants. With funding from fifteen banks and lending institutions, the City the State and foundations, the organization sold over 150 renovated homes to owner-occupants and offered 160 renovated homes for rent. The Abell Foundation supported the creation and growth of the organization through grants, loans and loan guarantees. Read more...

Public Justice Center
The March 2003 Abell Newsletter reported that Baltimore has a staggering case load that burdens the courts, enables relatively rapid and inexpensive evictions and results in the dumping of tenant belongings in the street. The Public Justice Center researched the processes used in other cities and states, offered legislative and administrative proposals to improve the system and, together with the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, built a coalition of groups to educate residents and policymakers and advocate for reform. City Council legislation was passed in October, 2007 that reduced the number of evictions by 25 percent and eliminated the practice of dumping tenant chattel in the street, saving the City more than $1,000,000 in sanitation and landfill costs. Read more…

Rebuilding Together Baltimore
Rebuilding Together mobilizes a volunteer workforce to ensure that low-income homeowners, especially those who are elderly, disabled, and families with children, live in greater independence in warmer, safer, drier homes. While core activities take place in selected Baltimore neighborhoods, expansion of services and increasing the impact on and in communities can help with community preservation and stabilization by maintaining the condition of homes and making it possible for low income homeowners to “age in place” at home. Rebuilding Together increased the number of homeowners served by 30% in FY 2008.

St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center
St. Ambrose received the first nonprofit designation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address FHA-foreclosed houses through an Asset Control Area in Northeast Baltimore. The Abell Foundation provided start-up funding for staff to implement the program. Over a period of three and one-half years, St. Ambrose purchased, renovated and sold to homeowners 112 vacant foreclosed houses and doubled to ten the number of lenders participating in the acquisition and renovation financing. As the number of FHA-foreclosed houses has declined in the neighborhoods in the Asset Control Area, St. Ambrose has expanded the program to include neighborhoods in Southwest Baltimore.

University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Capital funding was provided for construction of a new LEED-certified building for the Journalism School and to establish The Abell Professorship in Baltimore Journalism. Each semester, the professorship will provide an opportunity for 8 to 10 upper-level undergraduate and graduate students to develop stories on timely and important issues affecting the health and quality of life in Baltimore City. Student stories will be prepared for publication or broadcasting in The Sun and other regional media outlets during the year.

Visit the Grantmaking section to learn about the steps involved in making a grant application and to see other recently funded grants.