Bills to establish land bank, reduce vacant homes likely to fail in Baltimore City Council

Two bills that would have helped establish a land bank authority in Baltimore, allowing the city to foreclose on certain vacant lots and properties, did not garner enough support at a City Council committee hearing Tuesday, and members will recommend against its passage at the next council meeting. The move signals yet another blow to efforts to reverse the city’s vacant housing crisis. More than 13,000 dwellings are empty in the city, with most of them located in areas with “high concentrations of both vacancy and poverty,” according to the Abell Foundation.