Homeless people dislodged from a downtown Baltimore encampment under Interstate 83 in December have earned a reprieve from the streets, thanks to additional monies approved by the city’s Board of Estimates extending their stay in an area motel.

About 40 people who were removed from an improvised camp in a small embankment off the 400 block of Guilford Street will continue to stay at a Quality Inn on Security Boulevard paid for by the city through the end of January.

The added time will cost the city $125,000, money city officials argued was necessary to buy time.

“The goal obviously is to find permanent housing for these people, and that takes time,” said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon.

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“It is one instance where we need to do the right thing, not just what is expedient.”

City officials had declared the community of improvised tents a fire hazard on Dec. 14 and had placed several dozen homeless people in the Baltimore County motel.

Officials say they have been working to find permanent housing for all the relocated people.

Last week, Dixon revealed her 10-year plan to end homelessness in the city.

The plan included adding 500 Housing First subsidized apartments, obtaining special housing vouchers for emergency cases, providing legal services for families on the verge of homelessness, increasing job training in shelters, and providing incentives to local employers to hire the homeless.

“This is a blueprint for designing a city and society where homelessness no longer exists,” the mayor said at the time.

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com