Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is working to overcome the legacy of past housing policies and ongoing housing challenges that have left marginalized communities with limited pathways to property ownership. The Executive Fellow will design and implement a homeownership coaching strategy for underserved communities, beginning with a comprehensive listening tour and landscape analysis of current resources. This work will establish a standardized coaching framework that unifies efforts across housing counseling agencies while building crucial partnerships to expand coaching capacity citywide.
The initiative addresses the significant gap between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) national affordability standard (based on a $97,000 annual household income) and Baltimore’s median household income of $55,000. By creating a robust coaching curriculum covering financial literacy, credit improvement, and homeownership maintenance skills, the project will provide residents with practical pathways to homeownership. The Fellow will also identify sustainable funding sources for program expansion and establish monitoring frameworks to evaluate long-term impact, ultimately increasing access to wealth-building opportunities in Baltimore’s underserved communities.
