Southeast CDC staff manage programs and projects that support the equitable revitalization of neighborhoods in Southeast Baltimore. Our successes over the past year have supported families, strengthened communities, and led to measurable impact on the revitalization of Southeast Baltimore.
Placemaking and Public Space Projects
Despite COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, we continued to safely implement public space projects that make neighborhoods welcoming and beautiful.
We invested $354,313 in neighborhood and commercial revitalization projects in FY21.
Highlandtown Main Street
We manage the revitalization of Highlandtown Main Street with events, facade improvements, technical assistance, cleaning and greening projects and marketing.
25 new businesses opened in the Highlandtown Main Street and Highlandtown Arts districts in 2022.
Check out www.ihearthighlandtown.com.
Southeast CDC is a participant in the Baltimore BASE (Business Assistance and Support for Equity) Network, a partnership of business support organizations led by the Baltimore Development Corporation and the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Development that helps BIPOC-owned small businesses access pandemic-related recovery assistance. In January 2022, the Network launched a new initiative called the Economic Recovery Fund that provides grants and technical assistance to small businesses with the goals of helping businesses recover, stabilize, and grow.
During this first round of Economic Recovery Funds, we:
- provided outreach to more than150 businesses
- helped 15 businesses complete applications
- are providing technical assistance to 22 businesses to help them finalize estimates and budgets, explain the grant agreement and future reporting needs, and collect and submit paid invoices and receipts to process payments.
Homeownership
Helping families achieve affordable and sustainable homeownership in a thriving community is at the core of Southeast CDC’s mission.
We provided 515 clients with Home Buyer Education and 408 clients with first-time home buyer counseling in 2022.
Southeast CDC is a HUD-approved provider of housing counseling, which includes helping first-time homebuyers navigate the complex process of buying a home.
We submitted 29 Tu Hogar loan applications on behalf of immigrant housing counseling clients who want to purchase a home.
Tu Hogar is an alternative credit loan program offered by our partner Neighborhood Housing Services of Baltimore that helps immigrant homebuyers purchase their first home.
3,200 people viewed our ¡Viva Baltimore! Facebook Live event, including 150 attendees the day of the live event.
¡Viva Baltimore! is Southeast CDC’s homebuyer program aimed at attracting and retaining Latino homeowners to Southeast Baltimore. Our annual event was held virtually due to the pandemic.
Community Schools
Southeast CDC is the lead non-profit partner for five Community Schools, zoned, public schools where we organize partnerships and resources to support families so their children can thrive in school.
Last school year, we raised or leveraged $926,521 for our Community Schools.
We provided a range of supportive services in response to the COVID-19 emergency, including weekly food distribution, cash assistance, tech distribution, home visits and wellness checks.
Through partnerships with the Johns Hopkins and SAVAL Foods, our five Community Schools in Southeast Baltimore have distributed 450 boxes a week of fresh groceries to families for the past two years–about 36,000 pounds of food per month to families.
Eviction Prevention
Southeast CDC began serving households through our Family Stability Program in 2015. The program aims to reduce destabilizing school transfers caused by an involuntary move. Since the program’s inception, we have served 182 families, with 112 of those families (approximately 62%) headed by immigrant parents.
Southeast CDC works with families who are experiencing housing and financial instability but have a dream of becoming homeowners. Our Family Stability clients are referred to our HUD-approved homeownership counseling program when they’re ready. Here is a recent story:
Ms. Andrea came to Southeast CDC in the summer of 2019 as a client in our Family Stability program, which provides a small amount of financial assistance and up to 12 months of case management for families at risk of eviction or a utility shutoff. Ms. Andrea is an immigrant from Honduras, speaks Spanish and has two children. She had unstable employment, was behind on her rent and her apartment had been recently broken into.
Our case manager coached her to create a budget, open a bank account, work on her immigration case and find more stable income. She was referred to our Spanish-speaking housing counselor to update her budget and set goals for building her credit and saving toward homeownership.
Ms. Andrea worked successfully on her financial goals and graduated from the Family Stability program. Ms. Andrea now runs a small cleaning company. She joined Southeast CDC’s Homebuyer Club in September and is excited about the prospect of becoming a homeowner. She says “Thanks to tough love and support of Southeast CDC counselors, I was able to manage my finances, save for my down payment and have been able to document my income. Today I have saved more than $14,000 and my credit score is over 700, and I am ready to buy my house. Thank you for Southeast CDC’s support”.
Our COVID eviction prevention program, a partnership with Baltimore City, ended in December 2022. Over two years, Southeast CDC assisted households with more than 350 submissions for rental assistance , and our clients had been approved for more than $1 million in rental assistance funds. These numbers will continue to increase as more applications are processed and approved over the next few months by the city.
Summer Youth Jobs
Our summer youth jobs program provides a summer job to local youth who are enrolled in the Baltimore City YouthWorks program.
In the summer of 2022, we provided a job to 10 YouthWorkers. This summer, YouthWorkers designed and painted a mural in Ellwood Park.
COVID-19 Response
The COVID-19 crisis exacerbated an already tenuous situation for many community members facing housing and food insecurity, many without access to federal or state benefits and the internet. In response, Southeast CDC set up new activities to support our most vulnerable households.
In the last fiscal year, we raised $658,000 for COVID relief programs which directly supported our community with:
- Hiring of two eviction prevention case managers to help Spanish-speaking residents apply to the city’s rental assistance program; we have submitted 179 applications since December 2020; 60 have been approved so far, totaling $317,805 in rent support.
- Distribution of $240,000 in small business grants to merchants in our Highlandtown Main Street program.
- Distribution of weekly food boxes to families at our Community Schools: in FY21, we distributed 29,077 boxes of food totaling 406,028 pounds of food.
- Support of weekly food distributions through a partnership with Centro Sol and Comite Baltimore de Latino.
- Providing direct cash assistance to 407 families.