Food & Water Watch
This grant supports Food & Water Watch’s efforts to ensure that Baltimore City’s Water Accountability and Equity Act is implemented according to the law, and that eligible Baltimore City residents enroll in the “Water for All” program. Under the law, water bills will be capped at 1%-3% of income for those living at 50-200% of the Federal Poverty Limit, including tenants. To incentivize on-time payments and retention in the program, the equivalent amount of each on-time water bill payment is deducted from enrolled residents’ arrears. In addition, the act calls for the creation of the “Office of Water Customers Advocacy and Appeals” within the Department of Public Works (DPW) to provide all residents with a fair and neutral process of resolving water bill issues, which the OIG’s recent report shows are prevalent.
Episcopal Housing Corporation
This grant will support Episcopal Housing Corporation’s renovation of 17 W. Mulberry Court into nine Permanent Supportive Housing units. Permanent Supportive Housing is an evidence-based intervention to end chronic homelessness, which has also been shown to decrease health care spending. Once the development is complete, tenants will be referred from the Baltimore City’s Coordinated Access List, and Health Care for the Homeless will provide social services to those tenants.
Civil Justice, Inc.
This grant supports a new project of Civil Justice, the Medical Debt Collection Defense Project. Through this program, Civil Justice will provide direct legal representation for approximately 50 Baltimore City residents who are being sued for medical debt. Through these cases, Civil Justice will identify systemic abuses and use impact litigation to stop these abuses.
Catherine’s Family and Youth Services
Catherine’s Family and Youth Services (CFYS) serves families, youth, and seniors in Park Heights and other communities in Northwest Baltimore. CFYS provides a range of services, including a free after school and summer program for neighborhood youth, a food pantry, school supply drives, clothing distribution events, and referrals to other agencies for additional services. This grant supports CFYS’s emergency food distribution program, which provides prepared meals for 500 – 1,000 people each week through a partnership with World Central Kitchen and Breaking Bread restaurant, a Black-owned Baltimore restaurant. In addition, CFYS supplements the prepared meals with donations of meat, produce, bread, nonperishable foods, baby supplies, paper goods and cleaning supplies.
BUILD
Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) is a broad-based coalition of faith institutions, schools and neighborhood associations that collaborate to make Baltimore a better place to live, work and raise a family. This grant supports BUILD’s COVID-19 Emergency Food Program. Launched in April 2020, the program provides weekly deliveries of food to 1,250 families in East Baltimore who have been adversely impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. BUILD is working with four East Baltimore churches, and housing developer ReBUILD Metro, to identify families in need of food assistance and deliver weekly boxes of produce and nonperishable foods. In addition to providing food for families struggling with food insecurity, the program provides part-time employment for the drivers who deliver the food, most of whom are residents of the communities served and in many cases receive food assistance themselves.