Baltimore housing advocates call for a land bank to address vacancy crisis

Iya Kenya MahaliyaDara loves her Northwest Baltimore home, but she’s getting tired of her neighbors. For the past seven years, the 48-year-old Baltimore native has lived in a Park Heights rowhome she inherited from her mother. Next door is a vacant home where rats, mice, roaches, nests of hornets, feral cats and a family of raccoons live.b MahaliyaDara said she has tried contacting the owner — an LLC based in College Park that hasn’t been in good standing with the state since 2007 — and gotten no response. She thinks it’s time for the city to act.