When we began our work in Oliver in 2006, it was consumed by vacancy and criminal activity—the same conditions that had defined the area for generations, and that had led to the tragic firebombing murder of Angela Dawson and her children in 2002. Despite being blocks from some of Baltimore’s greatest assets, few people in Baltimore believed that there was a pathway for this part of Oliver to escape its cycle of poverty and decline. But we shared the vision of community leaders that Oliver could grow again.
Leveraging $1.2 million that local churches had pooled, we raised an initial $9.3 million and began to rebuild, one house and one block at a time. Block by block, we have worked to restore a 10-block area of Oliver and neighboring Broadway East, starting with clusters of their abandoned homes and then incorporating storefronts and open spaces. As a result of our long-term commitment to rebuilding this neighborhood, it has now become a stable, growing, mixed-income community where families can thrive. Over the last decade, vacancy in this area declined by over 90%, and over 600 new residents moved into the community—without anyone being displaced.
