Why do people choose to sleep outside or in vacant buildings rather than shelters in Baltimore?

Unsafe and nasty conditions is a major reason, says a group of advocates, who surveyed 74 shelter residents and unhoused people over the summer about their experiences.

“We heard about brown water coming out of taps, faucets and places for people to bathe. Towels and bed clothes that are mildewy and moldy,” declared Danielle Albrecht, of Housing our Neighbors, who helped lead the research.

“We have cockroaches and bed bugs crawling over shelter residents when they sleep, and no safety and security,” she continued, addressing a speak-out event HON organized in front of City Hall on Friday. “We have residents sleeping in rooms that do not have locked doors. Residents cannot lock their doors to sleep at night. They do not feel safe.”

The 21-page report brims with harrowing and unsavory details gleaned from respondents, including:

• Raw meat served at mealtime. Plus other food that’s moldy or out of date.

• Individuals who depend on insulin pumps, oxygen tanks, mobility assistive devices told “that they have too many personal possessions and cannot bring all of them.”

• People turned away from shelters for odd arbitrary reasons (“too many tee shirts”) or for being queer or trans.

The group called for city and state officials to do more to ensure that shelters are clean, safe and more humanely run.

Specifically, they want Maryland lawmakers to approve in the next legislative session a measure they failed to approve in the last one – requiring homeless shelters to be regulated by the state.

The measure (SB 234/HB93) had been requested by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

“We are human beings! We’re not just homeless!” declared HON lead organizer Mark Council, addressing the group of about 50 people.

“We need your help! We need your voice!” the longtime housing activist implored. “Go down to Annapolis. Go to Washington. Let people know what’s going on in these shelters.”

Failing Grades

HON’s Belinda Rodriguez denounced state lawmakers for not approving a shelter licensing measure that she said would have cost $300,000 to implement.

“By comparison, in 2020, the state of Maryland provided $10.3 million of funding to shelters – so we have that much money,” Rodriguez said. “We’re willing to give shelters millions of dollars a year, but we’re not willing to spend $300,000 to make sure they’re managed correctly.”

HON member James Crawford Jr. said the unsafe and unsanitary conditions reported in city shelters differ little from those he experienced when he was homeless in Baltimore 25 years ago.

“You have to have licenses if you want to cut a dog’s toenail, but you don’t have to have a license to take care of people in a shelter? That’s just wrong,” Crawford said as the crowd chanted, “shame, shame!”

“We’re willing to give shelters millions of dollars a year, but we’re not willing to spend $300,000 to make sure they’re managed correctly”  – Belinda Rodriguez.

Another longtime housing activist, Amanda Destefano, said current shelter residents’ fear of reprisals kept many of them away from the speak-out.

“They do not feel safe or comfortable at an event like this,” she said, noting that advocates attempting to collect data were not allowed to enter city-owned former hotel shelters run by the TIME Organization.

The data that was collected suggest the dimensions of the problem:

• The majority of respondents gave a failing grade for their overall shelter experience, with several major shelters rated “extremely poor” across issue areas.

• Helping Up Mission and “Code Purple” spaces (the facilities made available by the city in cold weather) earned the lowest cleanliness scores.

• Baltimore Rescue Mission, Helping Up Mission and the TIME Organization earned the lowest food scores.

• More than half of residents surveyed were not aware of any grievance process at their current shelter.

City’s Efforts Questioned

Shelters that receive federal and state funds coordinated by the city’s Continuum of Care (CoC) organization are required to follow minimum habitability, safety and sanitation standards under their grants.

But the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) “does not enforce accountability,” the report’s authors concluded. “Some shelters get no money from the CoC, and therefore don’t have to follow ANY regulations outside of the city’s building codes.”

The study found multiple examples of shelter practices that violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the requirements of their state and federal grants, among them rooms without locks, rooms that can’t be navigated with wheelchairs, facilities with no place for people to store insulin.

Individuals told surveyors that Sarah’s Hope was “without air conditioning for a month this summer,” one HON speaker said.

The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services “does not enforce accountability,” the report concludes.

MOHS has not responded to a request for comment from The Brew.

Amid the many reported problems with city shelters, Baltimore officials have reported that their use is on the rise.

In April, MOHS Director Ernestina Simmons told a the City Council’s Housing and Economic Development Committee that the number of people using the city’s emergency shelter system for overnight stays has doubled in the last two years.

The number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time in 2024 also rose significantly, data presented by Simmons showed.

“You have a partner”

At Friday’s event, James Torrence, chair of the City Council’s Housing Committee, said Baltimore’s shelter program will be the subject of an upcoming hearing.

“We’ll be examining the things that you have brought up, but also realizing that we just spent federal dollars to do hotels,” he noted. “How are we utilizing them to provide safe spaces, and are we addressing every population possible?”

The 7th District councilman, who spoke of his own experience of being homeless growing up in Baltimore, promised the crowd, “You have a partner.”

“I know what it’s like to live on a on a couch with my mother, who was a returning citizen, and was denied housing because she made a mistake,” Torrence said.

“People may live on the streets, but it’s not always a choice. The system has failed them if it’s not allowing them to feel safe enough to be in it.”
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The organizers advised individuals with concerns about their rights or who need legal assistance to call the Public Justice Center at 410-625-9409.