In 2017, EJP supported HABC with a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant Application, which resulted in funding to revitalize the Perkins-Somerset-Oldtown (PSO) properties. Recently, EJP helped the PSO project secure an additional $10 million in Choice supplemental funding. As the development progresses, EJP continues to serve as the Program Manager and has created Neighborhood Stabilization Plans for both Perkins and Somerset Homes in Baltimore.
Baltimore is celebrating the completion of Phase 2 in the Perkins Homes — renamed Perkins Square — redevelopment project.
More than 250 total units have been built and are already leased or now available.
"The residents of Perkins Homes, welcome to Perkins Square," Housing Authority of Baltimore City president Janet Abrahams said.
The project in its entirety is aimed at transforming Perkins, Somerset and Oldtown with new homes, a school, stores and park space. Perkins Square offers nearly 800 of the more than 1,600 new units to be developed.
The original Perkins Homes consisted of 50 three-story brick buildings, demolished in 2023. The city helped relocate people who lived there. Now, new units have been set aside for those legacy residents.
"I'm looking out here seeing a lot of residents that (are) ready to get a key right now to go inside their apartment or their house," Perkins Tenant Council president Denise Street said.
City leaders said the project is about righting the wrongs of Baltimore's past.
"I hope today that you can see - promises made, promises kept, " Housing Authority of Baltimore City president Janet Abrahams said at the ribbon-cutting on October 9.
"When we think about what we are looking at today, we are talking about de-concentration of poverty, we're talking about inclusive community, we're talking about creating opportunities for every single resident in the city of Baltimore," said Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development commissioner Alice Kennedy.
Phase Three is now underway, which will add two more buildings with 150 more units. In the meantime, progress in Somerset is well underway, while work in Oldtown has just begun.
By Tommie Clark
Oct. 9, 2024
See full original article on: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/phase-two-perkins-square-redevelopment-project-complete/62560141