What We’re Learning

What We’re Learning

We believe that a community of creative problem-solvers, faced with complicated, seemingly intractable challenges, is well-served by thought-provoking, research-based information and analysis. We support the development and dissemination of research in two ways:

Abell Reports

Abell Reports are commissioned reports by subject matter experts, academics, and investigative journalists that provide studies of selected issues on the public agenda.

Abell-Supported Research

These projects – undertaken with grant funding by academics and nonprofit research and advocacy organizations – advance learning on issues key to Baltimore City.

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    Featured Reports

    Abell Reports: Police-Community Relations in Baltimore

    In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a consent decree for the Baltimore Police Department, mandating wide-ranging reforms. In a pair of companion reports, researchers from the University of Maryland examine the current state of community-police relations and how certain initiatives could help to improve them.

    Abell-Supported Research: Assessment of Maryland’s Need for Eviction Prevention Funds and the Estimated Fiscal Impact

    Eviction prevention programs, which cover up to three months of past-due rent, are a cost-effective way to stabilize families, pay landlords, and reduce costs to the state. This report examines two different scenarios that would prevent disruptive displacements.

    Abell Report: the Trouble with STRIDE

    Ten years ago, Maryland’s legislature passed a bill to expedite utilities’ replacement of their natural gas pipes in the name of safety. Since then, Maryland has adopted ambitious climate goals that will require the near elimination of natural gas use in homes by 2045. Yet the state continues to allow utilities to invest billions in replacing pipes, which consumers will have to pay for — with a profit for the utilities — for decades to come.

    Publications Library

    The Double Crisis: A Statistical Report on Rental Housing Costs and Affordability in Baltimore City, 2000-2013

    More than half of Baltimore’s renters live in housing they cannot afford, and the situation is only getting worse.

    The Power of Place: How Housing Policy Can Boost Educational Opportunity

    What if we gave families who wish to do so a chance to send their children to higher performing schools in more affluent neighborhoods?

    Baltimore Urban Affairs Reporting

    Future journalists investigate health care disparities in West Baltimore.

    Justice Diverted: How Renters are Processed in the Baltimore City Rent Court

    An Abell-funded report by Public Justice Center on Baltimore City’s Rent Court.

    Stopping the Flood Beneath Baltimore’s Streets

    An Abell-funded report by the Environmental Integrity Project on Baltimore’s sewage mess.

    Header photo courtesy of Venture for America.