Homelessness in Baltimore is surging and serious, officials told a City Council committee this week.

Presenting data covering the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2024, they said:

• The city’s outreach team encountered 26% more people experiencing homelessness.

• There were 45% more households experiencing homelessness that include children and 22% more adults age 65 or older.

For the annual, federally-required “Point in Time” survey conducted last January:

• Of the people interviewed at emergency shelters, 37% said it was their first time seeking help in such a place.

• Of those interviewed elsewhere, 52% said it was their first time experiencing street homelessness.

Nevertheless, Baltimore has risen to the challenge, asserted Ernestina Simmons, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS), addressing service providers and staff who joined her at the Tuesday hearing.

“I’m proud of the work that you all have been doing,” Simmons said ahead of a presentation showing the number of clients served and in some cases provided with permanent housing. “It has not been easy work.”

“These are challenges that are being faced across the United States,” she continued, noting that homelessness had been trending downward in Baltimore and pointing to Trump administration funding cutbacks, cost of living increases, lack of affordable housing and the end of Covid-related assistance programs.

But if Simmons – two years into her $212,000-a-year director’s job – was looking for empathy, she didn’t find much from the lawmakers and advocates attending this late afternoon hearing.

Councilman James Torrence, chair of the Housing and Economic Development Committee, launched a blistering attack on her performance.

He accused her of evading his questions about what he said was MOHS’ failure to start planning early enough to secure adequate emergency overflow shelter space ahead of cold  winter weather.

A blistering attack on MOHS’ readiness for winter weather by Councilman James Torrence.

“Can you confirm, or deny, that planning did not start until September?” Torrence demanded, announcing that he was filing a Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) request to obtain memos and emails to verify her answer.

One reason for his doubt about her accuracy, the 7th District lawmaker said, was an earlier conversation in which she had misstated the dates of the “winter shelter period” when emergency housing is made available.

“You said it was from November 15 to March 15. As a person who was formerly homeless [I know] it is November 1 to March 31,” he said. “That small inconsistency in a conversation with you makes me want to understand ‘Do you actually understand the process?’”

Cap on Shelter Stays

MOHS also came in for criticism from advocates representing the group Housing Our Neighbors (HON) over a policy it is drafting to cap shelter stays in Baltimore at 90 days, with exceptions made “if individuals demonstrate active engagement and participation in housing navigation services.”

HON’s Carey Cabrera reminded the committee about the unsanitary conditions and harsh practices reported by 74 users of city-funded shelters who participated in a survey over the summer.

In addition to bedbugs, moldy, under-cooked food and brown water, complaints included the indifferent and sometimes harsh conduct of shelter staff, as well as the poorly publicized grievance procedure, with some shelter clients feeling “terrified to make complaints for fear of retaliation.”

“We have questions about how we expect MOHS to hear grievances about the 90 day rule being enforced equitably or fairly, or if it’s being used as a tool to harass and threaten shelter residents,” she said.

Heaving a sigh, Simmons pointed out that in 2024 nearly 20,000 people that called the shelter hotline for a bed.

“What we can’t continue to do is tell people ‘no’ every single day that they call this line asking for help and support,” she said. “We have some people that has been in shelter for years, we have people that have declined housing of permanent supportive housing.”

“The length of stay policy was not about doing harm. It’s about creating flow into our ecosystem,” she continued, stressing that the policy “is still in draft form.”

Councilwoman Odette Ramos clearly had doubts.

“If we’re going to say that there’s going to be this limit, which I don’t necessarily agree with, there has to be everything in place to make sure that there’s housing at the end of that,” she said. “Rather than just back on the street, because then they’re going to be back in the shelters.”

Another HON member, clinical social worker Kyle Long, put it more bluntly, noting the rise in deaths due to extreme weather in Baltimore.

“Simply put, this proposal will actually kill people,” Long told the committee.

“No safety plan”

Overall, the toughest questions for Simmons came from committee chair Torrence, who experienced homelessness with his family for a time growing up in Baltimore. He pressed her on dangerous conditions reported in city shelters, explaining why safety concerns “are near and dear to me.”

“When I was young and I was staying at a shelter with my mother, she put her foot against the door so she could maintain being safe for me and my sister,” he recalled.

Torrence asked if Simmons would support looking into the creation of an independent monitor for city-funded shelters. Such an entity, he said, could resolve complaints that right now go nowhere, like the one he knew of by a shelter resident who reported suffering from a staffer “who was angry all the time.”

“I’ll even find you the money in the city budget to pay for the position,” he told her.

After some back-and-forth, Simmons said “yes.” But then added that a committee of the Continuum of Care group already can review complaints dropped in a complaint box – and “that is viewed by MOHS as an independent review.”

A major issue for Torrence was the city’s use of facilities in his West Baltimore district for winter overflow shelter, meaning a place where people can be housed when the temperature drops below 32 degrees. Among them is Edgewood Elementary School, shuttered recently by the School Board due to low enrollment.

“I was told by the chief of police of city schools that you have no safety plan for Edgewood,” Torrence said. “Even though you were told on the record by him that we had a fight because of parking in front of KIPP,” the nearby KIPP Ujima Village Academy middle school.

“There’s been multiple robberies. I have an open air drug market that we just got rid of in that area,” he continued. “Given fact your slide showed a number of people with substance abuse issues we need to have a safety plan.”

Simmons told him she would not open Edgewood for overflow use until she could ensure it is safe for the clients and the community. She said she welcomed his plans to obtain documentation of her conversations with other agencies like the Department of General Services, City Schools and Recreation and Parks.

“I started looking for a permanent overflow location when I got here,” she pointed out.

Shortfall from Federal Cuts

With some 70% of the funds MOHS administers coming from the federal government, program cuts will have a significant impact on the agency, Simmons said. Emergency Housing Vouchers for 215 households are being lost and that the 20-bed Hope Safe Haven program is shutting down due to loss of federal funds.

Deep cuts planned by HUD, she said, will shift more than $19 million away from permanent supportive housing, moving it instead to street outreach and transitional housing.

“This is the federal government letting us know that ‘ehh, we don’t believe in permanent supportive housing’”  – MOHS Director Ernestina Simmons.

“This is the federal government letting us know that ‘ehh, we don’t believe in permanent supportive housing,’” she said. “What we are looking at is 700 households being at risk of losing their subsidized housing.”

Simmons said the answer would have to be seeking state and philanthropic money to cover the shortfall.

Torrence pledged to look at the city budget for ways to create a reserve fund, stating, “I’m scared we are going to have a housing crisis eventually because of what our friends in the federal government are doing.”