Can Baltimore finally turn the corner on vacant homes?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Baltimore has spent decades trying — and often failing — to solve one of its most stubborn problems: thousands of vacant homes hollowing out neighborhoods and fueling cycles of crime, poverty and disinvestment. Now city leaders say the stars may finally be aligned. In pockets of Baltimore, new housing is going up, crime has fallen, and officials are rolling out the most ambitious revitalization effort in a generation. But not every neighborhood is seeing change, and residents in some areas say they’re still being asked to wait. USA TODAY housing reporter Andrea Riquier joins The Excerpt to break down Baltimore’s “go hard, but intentional” strategy, the risks if private and philanthropic funding falls short, and what signs to watch in 2026 to know whether this renaissance is real — or could stall like past efforts. She also explains what Baltimore’s approach could mean for other cities struggling with urban blight.
Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@usatoday.com.
Episode transcript available here.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Baltimore has spent decades trying to solve its most persistent challenge, thousands of vacant |
| 0:08.8 | homes that hollow out neighborhoods and fuel cycles of crime, poverty, and disinvestment. |
| 0:14.8 | Their success to date has been spotty, that is until now. |
| 0:18.7 | Today, in pockets of the city, new housing is going up, |
| 0:22.1 | reviving neighborhoods, crime is falling, and leaders say the stars are finally aligned to |
| 0:27.8 | mount the most ambitious revitalization effort in a generation. Hello, and welcome to USA Today's |
| 0:34.1 | The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, December 18, 2025. |
| 0:39.6 | USA Today reporter Andrea Ricciet joins us to explain why Baltimore believes this moment could mark a |
| 0:46.0 | turning point in its long fight against urban blight and how that might translate to other cities |
| 0:52.3 | facing similar struggles. |
| 0:55.5 | Andrea, thank you so much for coming on. |
| 0:57.2 | Hey, Dana. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:02.5 | You sketch this stark divide between places like Park Heights where revitalization is visible and Sandtown where residents say they feel forgotten. |
| 1:06.3 | Tell us about these two very different neighborhoods. |
| 1:09.6 | Sure. |
| 1:09.8 | I mean, one of the things that I was trying to |
| 1:11.8 | highlight in the story is how with such a huge magnitude of vacant homes all around the city, |
| 1:19.7 | sitting abandoned, there's going to have to be some hard decisions that get made. And some |
| 1:24.8 | neighborhoods are going to go first and some neighborhoods are going to have to wait and wait a while. Right now, Park Heights, which just happens to be where Mayor Scott grew up, has been the beneficiary of some money, some revitalization efforts. But I visited another area where they say they're just not seeing it yet. The strategy that's been identified for tackling vacant homes sounds a little bit contradictory, |
| 1:47.6 | but you have to sort of go hard but intentional. |
| 1:51.5 | I think that's the way the councilwoman described it to me. |
| 1:54.1 | You can't just pick one house on one block because that's where somebody purchased the home. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.