Around 2001 the city came up with an ambitious idea to acquire 5000 properties in Baltimore and sell them to people who would do productive things with them. A part of this project was something called SCOPE- Selling City Owned Property Efficiently. SCOPE houses in Reservoir Hill were supposed to be sold to home owner occupants or to investors who would sell to home owner occupants. It all sounded too good to be true (and in fact it was).
Back in 2005 I called SCOPE and Project 5000 failures and I stand by what I said today in 2008.
In 2002 and 2003 there were two huge tours of SCOPE homes in Reservoir Hill where a total of 1200 people showed up (300 in 2002 and 900 in 2003). The city bragged about the "success" of the tours and Mayor O'Malley listed Project 5000 as one of his creative accomplishments. We were about to enter the biggest real estate boom in the history of Maryland where even a dog or a dead person could get a loan. With all of this going on one would think that the city would be able to select numerous potential home owners and get them started on fixing up their new houses. The process ended up being very slow and it favored investors. The project was supposed to discourage speculation and sitting on properties but the city was not doing a good job of keeping track of work progress. Investors were sitting on SCOPE houses. The houses should have been sold to home owner occupants, there was no need for middle men. On houses that did get worked on, work was at times shabby. Outside of SCOPE it turns out that many of the 5000 properties that the city acquired were in fact empty lots! Empty houses were (and still are) the main problem that needed to be addressed. You walk around areas with project 5000 properties today and they are still in as bad of shape as they ever were. How could the city mess this up in such an unprecedented real estate boom?
I was inspired to write this article today when I passed by 2028 Linden and saw drug dealers loitering around it and sitting on its front stoop. This was a SCOPE house that I toured in 2002. When I was leaving the house Commissioner Paul T. Graziano was entering it with a special jacket that said "commissioner" on it. The house was eventually sold to an investor who turned out to be a speculator who eventually finished the house in a very cheap way. He then tried to sell the house for a large sum of money and then when he was unable to he rented it out! SCOPE was supposed to prevent a rental from happening. The first tenants trashed the place and had to be kicked out. The place stayed empty for a while and vandals had their way with it. The new tenants are rumored to be on section 8 and you can drive by there now and see this all for yourself. How can this be considered anything but a failure? The house would have been better off empty.
The worst part of all this is that this house is not the biggest problem on the block. Around the same time as the SCOPE debacle Pennrose Properties won the right to renovate and manage HABC houses. 2030 and 2032 Linden are HABC houses that Pennrose totally rehabilitated. Everything new. Now drug dealers are using these houses as a hub of operations.
Welcome to Reservoir Hill!
Comments
looks like another martin omalley falure,but you dont read about omalleys falures in the sun papers ,,do you.....lets see what dixson does,my bet not a thing
Adam
Project 5000 was ambitious and a pretty good idea, but as most things in Baltimore, it was horribly executed. Buying city owned properties has been a massive headache and a convoluted process. The city has had some luck in East Baltimore with BUILD and other non-profits, and they have recently proposed a "land bank" system to get rid of excess properties. I wouldn't necessarily pin this on O'Malley as much as I would pin this on the odd cocktail of Baltimore City malaise and greedy investors looking to make a quick buck on the backs of those that want to revitalize a neighborhood.
According to SDAT, 2028 Linden is owned by Odunola Johnson. It would seem strange Adam that you talk of seeing renters since Mr. Johnson has indicated that 2028 Linden Avenue is his principal residence. If that's not accurate, perhaps someone should be informed so he cannot claim the homestead tax exception. However, court records list Mr. Johnson's address as 2028 Linden.
"but as most things in Baltimore, it was horribly executed"
PUN INTENDED?
Does this really surprise anyone? The city along with Martin O'Malley has always done things to make themselves look good on the surface. Good job examiner for following up on yet another failed city project.
What do you think will happen to the city run Hilton? Just a matter of time.
Ovahere:
I had no less than a former Baltimore City Code Enforcement Attorney tell me personally that that notation on SDAT regarding whether or not the dwelling is the owner's "principal residence" is to be regarded as nothing more than a statement of INTENTION. In other words, all the fine Mr. Odunola Johnson has to do is say "I intend to reside in it once the rehab is complete". And THAT'S if anyone even bothers asking him (don't hold your breath)!
So I wouldn't be too concerned with what SDAT says. It means next to nothing. You have no reason whatsoever to doubt Adam, who lives across the street from this disaster. I'm not quite sure why you seem to go out of your way on past posts to be such a doubter.
The problem with SCOPE was simple. The prices they listed a potential rehab would cost were sometimes 3x higher than what any seasoned investor or renovator would pay. Potential homeowners or investors had to prove that they had enough money to not only purchase the house but also renovate it according to some third party source that SCOPE used to pull its rehab numbers from.
As a young 20 something back in '02 I wanted to buy a SCOPE house in Res Hill. I believe it was listed for $15K but SCOPE officials said the estimated rehab cost would be $280K! Needless to say, I didn't get that house.
Johnson has never lived there and he never intended on living there. Many investors lie about their primary residences in order to pay less property taxes. You can find another glaring example of this at 2239 Linden. It says it is owner occupied but the owner lives out of state.
Funkateer:
Intention or not, you can only have one principal residence, and you must live there to claim the homestead credit. Check sec. 9-105 of the Property Tax Article of the Md. Code. More often that not, there is a huge difference between what a lawyer tells you and what the law actually is. There is an obvious incentive for individuals who own multiple residences to claim these properties as their "principal" residence so as to claim the homestead eligibility credit. In fact, people falsely claiming several properties as their principal residence is the reason that the legislature changed the law so that, from now on, in order to receive that credit, you need to affirmatively apply for it.
Lastly, I do not doubt Adam. In fact, I actually voted for him. What started out as sarcasm in my post obviously took a different tone. And besides, Adam is the biggest doubter out there - what's so wrong with doubting him? He always backs himself up when necessary.
Good article Adam. You've touched on a very interesting topic.
Any experienced realtor could tell you that one of Baltimore's biggest crimes is the long history of real estate scams. Both the taxpayers and HUD have also been bilked by clever anti-poverty programs and inflated City purchases made during these real estate initiatives. A careful examination of property records in Reservoir Hill might reveal the same unusual activity that can be seen in other neighborhoods where certain blighted properties command ridiculous sale prices. For good reason, Baltimore City government has never been inclined to provide its citizens much transparency on their spending habits without putting up a fight. The State however has done a remarkable job, particularly the Maryland Judiciary and to a lesser extent SDAT, by providing public access to real estate records. Perhaps a link or listing of Project 5000 / SCOPE properties could be posted
This would be an excellent research exercise for the right person and a great opportunity for a follow up. Your readers could be in store for a real eye opener. Before jumping to conclusions and to be fair to the City it's important to realize that bulk parcel purchases (the same Liber/Folio number) can obscure the real numbers. Don't be surprised to find a collapsing Project 5000 building with a listed address was purchased by the City for big bucks then find that it was bundled with five other junkers. On the other hand, property records might show the City paid $600,000 for two bundled properties, but a quick driveby would reveal one to be a total wreck and the other might not even exist except for an empty lot.
If this seems fishy you may not want to dig deeper because it could get really smelly and here is where the the devil is in the details. Project 5000 properties I have seen in other parts of town show a portfolio of complete garbage that couldn't possibly justify the rehab investment or red tape. The sad truth is that there are many well connected slimeballs who have made fortunes off their large holdings of blighted properties. If you find telltale signs of abnormally high real estate activity in a blighted block, especially with transactions among multiple LLC's, beneath it all you are guaranteed to find some very affluent people. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that some of these characters may have been given the opportunity of a lifetime to dump the worst of their junk and laugh about it all the way to the bank.
Well, if the city is being defrauded by investors who are using property for what it wasn't intended for, then the city should seize it for eminent domain.
Good ideas and good intentions don't make good bed fellows. The purpose of the tour was for that purpose to show the speculators where they could suck up the property in order to get the bucks to cheaply fix the houses up and then resell they for profit or rent them. Just like you said if you give the property to a responsible person and send a "REPUTABLE" contractor to tell them what is "EXACTLY" what it will cost to make that house family liveable not a Trump Tower and and then give them the money for that actual cost to fix it up then you will see a difference.
Wow, 2 houses out of 5000. Do you have any statistics on any of the other Project 5000 houses? Or are you really calling an entire program a failure based on your personal observations of two houses? I'm not disputing that there might be problems with Project 5000. I'm just saying that no one can tell based on your poorly researched article. Did you bother calling anyone involved with the program to find out how widespread the purchase of these houses by out of town speculators is? Is it REALLY so hard for you to do actual research on what you post? Seriously...this Examiner is a joke.
Hey Adam, how's the Linden Tree going?
This blogger is the worse.
You give the people's address them inform everyone that you THINK they are on section 8. People like you make me ill. Who do you really think you are. Your attitude is the reason you can't simply talk to your neighbors and explain to them what you dont like and why but no....its just easier to paint a picture of them to other random people online
get a life
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