Baltimore nonprofits routinely wait over a year for city to approve contracts, report finds

Baltimore’s backlogged payment system routinely leaves nonprofits waiting more than a year for their contracts to be approved, often leaving partners to perform important services well before they can begin billing the city, according to a report released Wednesday by the Abell Foundation. Of 115 federal housing grants administered by Baltimore City and analyzed in the report, only one was approved on or before the date that the organization was scheduled to begin services. These delays have often forced organizations to make cutbacks, dip into reserves or rely on lines of credit, requirements that disproportionately harm small organizations, according to the report.