BALTIMORE — Last month homeowner Kris Spruill awoke up to heavy flames pouring out of her neighbor’s home on Norfolk Avenue. Every day since, she’s woken up in a hotel room now displaced by that fire.
Her and her family remain traumatized by the ordeal on March 18.
“We were asleep, and to think that somebody put our life at risk. What if I didn’t get up when I smelled the smoke?” she said. “We could have been all gone and somebody would have been saying ‘Oh, it’s so sad. That family died.’ But it could have been prevented.”
Though city makes progress addressing the vacant crisis, families continue to be impacted
No one’s lived next door for more than a decade, according to Spruill. The owner is elderly and lives somewhere else, as the property has fallen into disarray. Over time it's become Spruill’s issue.
Spruill says that during the winter a large tree from the neighboring yard fell and took out their power. Her and her husband have also made efforts to keep the grass cut.
“It’s been a constant problem and it’s so frustrating. Because it’s like, you call [the city] and when they finally come out, they’ll stick a note on the door. Who’s reading the note?” Spruill said.
She believes the fire may have been started by squatters. To add insult to injury, it happened the day there was a memorial service planned for her father, who had just passed.
“Whoever did this, they’re gone on, living their life to find another place. While me and my family are going through [it] emotionally, physically, financial[ly]. We’re in the midst of a fight right now,” Spruill said. “I thank God we have God in our life because it gives us peace, He has given us peace through this situation. But it has not been easy.”
Vacant fires are a constant problem and pose a safety risk for first responders as well.
“We respond to vacant properties almost every day,” IAFF Local 734 Union President Matthew Coster said. “Arson is a huge problem in Baltimore City. We have a lot of drug use and homeless activity in Baltimore City as well.
The city is two years into a 15 year plan estimated to cost $3 billion to address the vacant crisis— called “Reframe Baltimore.”
It’s made headway, as vacant properties have been reduced by 28% in Park Heights, a “designated Impact Investment Area”, and overall vacant properties are down 25% in the last six years, from 16,541 to now 11,868. New Vacant Building Notices (VBNs) have also sharply fallen.
Most properties are privately-owned. Though the city has legal remedies to overtake the property, that is not the typically its first move.
The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) takes multiple code enforcement steps, exhibited by notices typically posted on the front door. If a property owner fails to respond, the department may then seek legal recourse and force a sale through a process called receivership.
The city also may foreclose if the liens on a property outweigh the assessed value. Both can take time.
For Spruill and her family, it’s too late.
She says she’d like to see a more aggressive approach by the city.
“It sounds good. It sounds brilliant,” Spruill. “Take the house, if she doesn’t want it, take the house. Fix the house.”
In his State of the City address last week, Mayor Brandon Scott lauded the efforts that have reduced vacant properties so far, but acknowledged there’s more work to be done.
"That's great progress, but we have to understand that vacants are still a pain for all of us," Scott said. “They pull down neighborhoods and can be frustrating in many ways, including when city crews board them up and someone immediately takes off the boards."
He also noted the city is investing in "clear boarding" a partnership with the Bloomberg Innovation Team, which he says uses "strong, clear material to secure vacant buildings" to prevent fires and looks better than the typical plywood.
Meanwhile, Spruill and her family may be displaced for an entire year. They have a GoFundMe set up to help with expenses in the meantime.
“It hurts beyond what people really understand, they want to pacify us and we’re gonna do certain 16 years— who’s promised 16 years? I could have lost my life this year," Spruill said.
She wonders, with a demolition notice tacked to the board of the now-charred property, if it's even worth returning.
Read full statement from DHCD:
Our vacancy reduction efforts have delivered measurable results, achieving an overall 25% reduction in vacancies citywide since 2020. Through Reframe Baltimore, [reframebaltimore.com] [secure-web.cisco.com] we are taking a strategic, block-by-block approach to permanently address the vacant housing crisis over the next 13 years. Park Heights is one of our designated Impact Investment Areas – areas located strategically near anchor institutions, major redevelopments and recent neighborhood investments. In Park Heights alone, vacant housing has been reduced by 28%.
To hold vacant property owners accountable, DHCD uses a range of enforcement tools. Before pursuing legal action against privately owned, blighted property, we take multiple code enforcement steps, including issuing violation notices and citations, as well as creating work orders for cleaning and boarding.
When property owners fail to respond to code enforcement measures, DHCD may pursue receivership. This legal action is filed in court where the property owner and all parties with a secured interest in the nuisance property are served as defendants. The court can appoint a receiver to sell the property to abate the nuisance.
DHCD also utilizes In Rem Foreclosure, a tool that allows the City to foreclose on the liens attached to a vacant lot or building when the value of those liens exceeds the assessed value of the property, enabling the City to take title and move the property toward productive reuse.
