Advocates demand grassroots support for homeless population

How can Baltimore’s faith community help people without housing?

That was the theme of a new forum, “Voices of the Unsheltered & Homeless Community,” held Saturday morning in Northeast Baltimore.

The meeting was the first of what will be monthly meetings every second Saturday, said Christina Flowers, an advocate for Baltimore’s homeless population and the forum’s organizer.

“What we are doing today is starting a community initiative where we’re working with our interfaith community and some of our clergies to come up with some strategies and ideas to really help our unsheltered, homeless community,” Flowers said.

Flowers is founder of Belvedere Real Care Providers Network and has been a vocal advocate for a group of people living in a homeless encampment at the site of Baltimore’s Farmers Market under the Interstate 83 overpass at Saratoga and North Gay streets.

“This is day one for us,” she said. “This is about building and developing our own strategies in the interfaith communities.”

Encampment residents have been at odds with city officials about where they’re living under I-83. The city has wanted them to vacate since it overlaps with the popular seasonal farmers market and disrupts vendors spaces. However, residents wanted to stay put and demanded more permanent housing.

In early October, the group erected barricades on Saratoga Street at North Gay Street during a protest and blocked traffic. The city offered them services and shelters, which some of the homeless accepted.

The city has several initiatives in the works to address homelessness in Baltimore. In August, the Board of Estimates approved about $6.1 million through summer 2025 for a housing navigation and landlord recruitment project, designed to help people through the process of finding a place to live in Baltimore.

Mayor Brandon Scott announced earlier this year that the city was spending $90.4 million in American Rescue Plan and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to create emergency housing and other housing assistance programs.

Since February, five federally funded projects to build infrastructure for Baltimore’s homeless services system have been advancing, the city said. But that process takes time

in part because of the rules and bureaucracy associated with using U.S. Treasury funds.

There were more empty chairs at Saturday’s event than attendees, but that’s expected when “we’re

talking about people without a voice,” said Bishop Angel I. Nunez, who hosted the meeting at the the Bilingual Christian Church of Baltimore.

Nunez said he hopes that the combined effort of religious communities and homeless advocates will lead to positive change.

Charity is important across different faiths, and some faith groups already have experience with outreach to homeless people.

Life Deliverance Outreach Center offers help with drug addiction, homelessness and domestic violence in Baltimore, including Park Heights and Belvedere, as well as

Reisterstown, said Apostle Arnetta Thomas Harris, who was invited to speak at the event.

Wanda Watts, a lead community liaison for Baltimore’s Consent Decree Monitoring Team, and Marvin L. “Doc” Cheatham, a West Baltimore neighborhood leader and longtime Baltimore civil rights leader,

also spoke and stressed the importance of sharing knowledge and resources to uplift communities in

Baltimore that are ravaged by homelessness and crime.

The hope for these gatherings is to bring invested community leaders, particularly in the Black communities, together “so that we can be a solution to these individuals,” Flowers said.

The Black interfaith communities can and should play a helping hand, she said.

“When you look at the history over Baltimore City, it is definitely carried out through a lot of white establishments that deal with our homeless population,” she said. “But we’re still looking at the same issue. We’re looking at homeless people living under the bridge. We’re looking at homeless people living in the woods.”

December’s meeting location is to be determined, she said.