2024 Annual Report

“Protecting this legacy, its not been an easy journey, but it has been well worth it,” says Marcia Williams, an MVLS client who is working to keep her home in the family. Marcia William’s home, in East Baltimore, has been in her family for 66 years. She has been struggling to afford her property taxes and home repairs, but she doesn’t give up. Marcia’s home is in current need of repairs to the roof, plumbing and electrical system. But, despite living below the federal poverty line, she can’t gain access to home repair grants or homeowner tax credits because the deed to her house is not in her name.  

Marcia’s home was bought by her grandparents in 1959. While both have passed away, the deed still has them listed as the owners. This home has housed at least five generations of Marcia’s family – her grandparents, mother, herself, her daughters, and her grandchildren. For Marcia, she can see the past and future of the home. She wants “to feel like my grandfather is at peace because we are okay.” and to “keep it going, the home is always a need at some time for someone.” Marcia’s home does not just provide stabilization for her, but also for the three generations under one roof.  

In Baltimore, decades of housing practices and policies have stripped Black families of their ability to leave a legacy by passing their home from one generation to the next. These restrictive policies diminish the futures of Black families in the city. Structural inequality hindered the ability for individuals to have safe shelter, and the potential for communities to build neighborhoods. Our work has been able to stem that tide and put power within communities. Last year alone, our My Home, My Deed, My Legacy program preserved $4 million in home values for these clients. 

A longstanding law exists in Maryland requiring all “public charges”, including water bills, property taxes and other charges to be paid before a new deed can be recorded. This law on its face seems to make sense, after all why shouldn’t someone be current on their various bills to the City when they are obtaining a new home. In practice, the law doesn’t reflect the reality for so many legacy homeowners. If these homeowners could access critical resources, like home repair grants, or tax credits, they could be current on their public charges. However, the inability to get the home into their name is stopped by the public charges themselves.  

They are stuck in a perpetual cycle where they cannot pay down the amounts owed to the City because they cannot access otherwise available resources, but they cannot access these resources until they paid down the amounts and recorded a new deed. Up until this year, Marcia could not get the property in her name until she paid several thousand dollars in property taxes and water bills.   

After seeing far too many MVLS clients stuck in this unending cycle while they tried to stave off tax sale or their home falling into disrepair, we found more ways to move the needle. We recognized that in addition to helping the individual clients, we had to change the system that was harming many families.  MVLS, working in partnership with other advocates, worked over several years to raise awareness about the harmful impact this was having on homeowners and to secure enough legislative support to create a system that works for more families.  As a result of that advocacy, HB54 was passed in this year’s session and signed into law by Governor Moore, and now there is hope for homeowners like Marcia. 

HB54 allows heirs who owe property taxes, water bills, and other City/County bills that are a lien on their property to record a new deed, provided that they have entered into a payment plan with Baltimore City or the State.  Critically, this new law will allow heirs in tangled title properties to finally be able access home repair programs, tax credits and homeowners insurance, resulting in meaningful housing stability.  

Marcia is MVLS’ first client who we are helping to utilize this new law. She recently entered into a payment plan for her water bill and will soon pay off her property taxes, so she should be eligible to record a deed. Now that the law has passed, our work isn’t done, MVLS staff have shifted our focus to implementation requiring sustained administrative advocacy. Despite the law being on the books, the decades old processes that exist in the finance department and land records office in Baltimore are slow to change. We are now working with the State Department of Taxation and the City of Baltimore to make sure homeowners like Marcia can access their new rights. Cases like this one illustrate the need to advocate for change and racial justice on both an individual and systemic level. Without the passage of HB54, Ms. Willams would still be unable to transfer her deed. 

MVLS has been helping Ms. William’s for a year and a half and she was trying to unravel this issue on her own long before that. She emphasized the patience required for her journey, remarking, “We’ve been waiting on this for a long time, 13 years now.” But again, she is persistent, adding “we have to start motivating each other, to stay uplifted.”  

Marcia William’s resilience is a foundation for her family and for her community. It is our hope that by spring her name will be on the deed to her home and she will continue be able to leave her legacy as she intends. 

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