EAST BALTIMORE — When renovating a vacant house, developer Marcus Walker says there's not usually much he can salvage.
"You have to take it to the bone, so you’re taking it all the way back to the brick," he said.
Walker and his team are currently working on a rowhome on Ravenwood Avenue in East Baltimore, located in a neighborhood called the Four by Four. A fire gutted the building 10 years ago and it has sat vacant ever since.
Wesley Ross had to look at its charred remains every time he walked out of his home across the street.
"It was an eyesore at first but now good people like that come and make the neighborhood better," he said, speaking of Walker.
"This is a project that most folks are scared of," Walker said. "It’s very risky but we take it on. We actually enjoy taking on the ugly house."
Tackling the ugly, vacant homes is part of the mission of A Strong Foundation, which Walker runs along with his wife, daughter and son.
"So being an eyesore, you’re coming out of your house and this is all you see. It does something to a person. So when you come out and you see folks are investing in your space, it’s a positive thing."
A Strong Foundation is one of four non-profits, and other developers, that are renovating more than 200 vacant homes in the Four by Four.
"Communities want to see action. So they don’t want to keep hearing you talk, talk, talk they hear the rhetoric all the time," said State Senator Cory McCray.
Five years ago, McCray said he wanted to focus on the Four by Four, which is made up of Ravenwood, Elmora, Lyndale and Elmley Avenues.
He said he worked with the court systems to remove neglectful homeowners, secured state subsidies for the non-profits to help with gaps in the appraisals and got the vacants transferred to those groups and other developers.
"Five years is a long time and I know folks are saying that, but at the end of the day, my goal is that that five then turns to three. That three then turns to one. Then we have an efficient system that works for all neighborhoods," McCray said.
He said his goal now is to get the vacants in liveable condition and get new owners in them by the end of the year.
Walker hopes to have his renovations at 3130 Ravenwood done by August and then its on to the next ugly vacant house, turning it into a beautiful home.
"One house at a time, one block at a time, one community at a time. It’s going to make a difference and it has made a difference."
