Black Baltimoreans fight to save homes from redevelopment

By LEA SKENE
Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — Residents of a historically Black neighborhood in west Baltimore filed a complaint this week asking federal officials to investigate whether the city’s redevelopment policies are violating fair housing laws by disproportionately displacing Black and low-income residents to make way for so-called urban renewal projects. The complaint focuses on Poppleton, a neighborhood that was originally slated for redevelopment in the 1970s. The city contracted with a New York-based developer in 2006 and started seizing Poppleton properties, sometimes through eminent domain — government seizures of private property for public use. The project has largely stalled, and residents complain their community has been destroyed for no reason.