UMB employees can learn more about the West Baltimore neighborhoods in the program on Oct. 1 when LNYW joins Live Baltimore for an in-person trolley tour.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Live Near Your Work (LNYW) program is adding a neighborhood rich with history — Upton — and helping to make it even more affordable to buy a home in one of its targeted West Baltimore neighborhoods by increasing the incentive that participants can receive.
For the rest of 2022, UMB is offering an additional $5,000 in grant money to up to 50 LNYW homebuyers, bringing the total available funding from the University to $21,000 to use toward down payment and closing costs.
In addition, the city of Baltimore provides $2,500 to LNYW participants. It also recently updated its First-Time Homebuyers Incentive Program, offering $10,000 to those who meet income and other qualifications and a potential $10,000 bonus to those who purchase in an impact investment area. This means that UMB’s LYNW participants could be eligible for a total of $43,500.
Dawn Rhodes, DBA, UMB’s senior vice president and chief business and finance officer, says rising interest rates led UMB to increase the grant money this year.
“Interest rates have increased from a low of 2 percent last fall to over 6 percent in some cases now,” she said. “We want to encourage our employees to keep buying homes, which have the potential to be refinanced when interest rates drop again.”
Upton, which was one of Baltimore’s earliest African American middle-class neighborhoods and is celebrated for its well-preserved architectural detail and ties to famous African Americans, is one of the city’s impact investment areas. Baltimore housing officials are working with residents to create a vision for the neighborhood, produce a 10-year plan, assemble a capital budget, and develop a strategy for creating more affordable housing and addressing abandoned properties, according to the Upton Planning Committee.
“Upton is a neighborhood of promise that is experiencing a deliberate renaissance,” the committee said in its LNYW application. “Currently over $70 million in development is underway in Upton and over 75 houses are being rehabilitated for homeownership in the community. This level of investment has positioned Upton as an attractive community for new homeowners.”
Rhodes said Upton was a natural fit for the LNYW program because of the development investment, location, and housing rehabilitation taking place.
“By adding Upton as an LNYW neighborhood, UMB has an opportunity to incentivize our employees to be part of the revitalization and stabilization of this once-vibrant neighborhood,” she said.
Trolley Tour on Oct. 1
Upton joins a lineup of nine other West Baltimore neighborhoods in the LNYW program: Barre Circle, Druid Heights, Franklin Square, Heritage Crossing, Hollins Market, Mount Clare, Pigtown/Washington Village, Poppleton, and Union Square. The University has provided over $1 million in grant money to 67 employees who have bought homes in these neighborhoods since 2018.
To be eligible for UMB’s LNYW program, you must be a regular full- or part-time (50 percent FTE or more) faculty, staff, or postdoctoral fellow employee in good standing. Participants must contribute a minimum of $1,000 toward the down payment, prove creditworthiness, and complete a homeownership counseling program.
UMB employees can learn more about Upton and the other LNYW neighborhoods from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 1 when the LNYW program joins Live Baltimore for an in-person fall 2022 Trolley Tour. The tour features West Baltimore neighborhoods and offers the chance to connect with community organizations and real estate professionals and attend expert-led workshops. Live Baltimore will then give out 20 $5,000 incentive awards to the Trolley Tour participants, determined by lottery. Click here for more information and to register.
Rhodes said she is looking forward to providing not only UMB employees but also other potential homeowners the opportunity to see neighborhoods and houses near campus.
“While we want our employees to buy in these neighborhoods, we want others to also,” she said. “Our LNYW mission is supporting community revitalization and stabilization. To that end, we want any responsible homeowner to buy in our neighborhoods.”
Walkable and Commuter-Friendly
In Upton, the median home purchase price is $30,950, with 14 percent of residents owning their homes, which are mostly rowhouses, according to Live Baltimore. The neighborhood is commuter-friendly and walkable, with a walk score of 82, a bike score of 61, and a transit score of 89. It is close to Charles Center and Penn Station with easy access to public transportation such as the Metro subway. It is minutes from Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, and the Inner Harbor.
Upton is perhaps best known for Pennsylvania Avenue, a once-thriving arts, cultural, and shopping district with jazz clubs, dance halls, and theaters where jazz greats like Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday performed. The avenue now serves as the main street of the community with stores and other services. Other retail and dining options include The Avenue Market, which opened in 1871 and features local produce and family-friendly activities. The Shake and Bake Family Fun Center, another anchor institution that was renovated in 2019, includes a roller skating rink and bowling alley.
Among Upton’s most notable residents were Calloway, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Rep. Parren Mitchell, and civil rights leader Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson. In addition, the neighborhood served as a base for the local and national civil rights movement.
The Upton Planning Committee provides a host of programs for the community including managing the Pennsylvania Avenue Main Street program, which supports the community’s commercial corridor. The committee helps to coordinate the Pennsylvania Avenue Billie Holiday Music & Arts Festival, which drew more than 5,000 people in 2019 and will be held again Oct. 8, and the Cadillac and Auto Parade. In addition, it partnered with the Wells Fargo Foundation to rebuild the Gardens of Hope, a community garden.
“Upton is a community of promise that is ripe for the UMB LNYW program because homebuyers can purchase houses at a very affordable price while helping to shape a community’s resurgence,” the committee said in its application.