News-Letter

Media Credit: Angeli Bueno "Live Near Your Work" hopes to attract employees to Waverly, west of Charles Village.

Last week Hopkins announced that employees of the University, the Hospital and the Bayview Medical Center will now be eligible for grants of up to $17,000 towards the purchase of homes in select neighborhoods in Baltimore.

The money, available through Hopkins's "Live Near Your Work" program, is a significant increase from the previous maximum grant, which was $2,500.

Hopkins employees have been able to apply for "Live Near Your Work" grants since 1997, and Michelle Carlstrom, director of WORKlife and Engagement at Hopkins, estimates that over 300 employees have taken advantage of it since then.

However, she said the program had stagnated in the last few years due to the rising expense of homes in many Baltimore city neighborhoods.

The increased grant money reflects the increased cost of purchasing homes around Hopkins's Baltimore institutions and has little to do with the recent drop in the national housing market, according to Carlstrom.

While there is no up-to-date record of how many Hopkins employees are currently city residents, the size and demographic diversity of its employee base makes administrators optimistic that the increased grant money will make purchasing a home in Baltimore city an attractive option.

Additionally, the program works as part of a broad strategy currently being pursued by Hopkins, the city of Baltimore, real-estate developers and non-profit organizations to fundamentally reshape and revitalize areas of the city around the Homewood Campus and the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

This plan also works as part of a "smart growth" strategy to build on already existing infrastructure, as well as to promote environmental sustainability.

These efforts include the East Baltimore Development Inc.'s redevelopment of the area around the Hospital as well as smaller scale initiatives by various non-profits in the Barclay and Greenmount communities south and west of Charles Village.

Half of the five million-dollar "Live Near Your Work" fund was provided for through a grant from the Rouse Company Foundation. This non-profit "helps provide reasonably priced, livable housing for low income families and individuals," according to its mission statement.

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