Outside the city that Hopkins students have come to know, to love, or to even hate, just past the usual boundaries and comfort zones, there is another Baltimore.
That's where you find communities like Sandtown-Winchester, 72 square blocks marked by dilapidated and abandoned row houses, condemned buildings and graffitied walls bearing the names of victims of street violence.
Once a thriving district named for the sand trails left behind by wagons after they filled up at the local sand and gravel quarry and then left town, Sandtown is a struggling neighborhood in the historically black inner-city of West Baltimore, an area left behind in more ways than one.
But this is no urban wasteland either. Sandtown is a part of Baltimore history, once home to Billie Holliday and the Royal Theater, featuring headliners in black entertainment, rich in culture and a deep sense of community.
Without a doubt, a large part of the noticeable community vibe now comes from a group of dedicated residents who came together in 1988 to form the New Song Community Church, a community-based, interracial Presbyterian congregation. Soon after, Sandtown Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit housing organization, followed in 1989.
New Song's holistic approach to neighborhood development guides the work of 50-year-old Allan Tibbels, executive director of New Song Urban Ministries and co-executive director of Sandtown Habitat for Humanity and his co-executive director, LaVerne Stokes, a lifelong Sandtown resident.
"We're trying to comprehensively impact our neighborhood," said Tibbels, a quadriplegic who moved to Sandtown with his wife and two daughters in 1986. "It was very much a faith-based decision."
For Tibbels, Sandtown is not just a service project or a workplace-it's his home.
"The most tangible way of doing that, loving God and loving your neighbors, is providing a decent, affordable house," he said.
In the past decades, the West Baltimore organization, one of more than 2,100 Habitat affiliates around the world, has seen their staff grow to more than 80 members, mostly neighborhood residents. New Song runs several other community development programs, from the New Song Community Learning Center to Family Health Services.
Their current mission is to rebuild the boarded-up, vacant houses in the area, increasing homeownership and improving the health of the community, one building at a time.
"Specifically, our goals are to finish the 150 vacant houses left within our 15-block focus area," Tibbels said, pointing to a big city-map on the wall that includes North Fulton Avenue, where his office is located, and Presstman Street, where Johns Hopkins' Habitat for Humanity student group is currently rebuilding a vacant house of their own.
JHU Habitat for Humanity has sponsored several houses over the past few years, raising the funds and bringing in volunteers. All proceeds from Habijam, an annual event featuring a cappella and dance groups, go to Sandtown.
Since Tibbels and company began their work, they've finished about 200 homes. They aim to reach their goal of 350 within the next several years, using mostly volunteer labor, donated materials, private funding and at least 330 hours of "sweat equity" from the future homeowner.
"A lot of people just give up, say there are too many vacant houses, these people don't have enough money," said Tibbels. But New Song's various branches are determined to prove them wrong.
The average cost of a Sandtown Habitat house is about $50,000, one-third of the cost of traditional development. Most houses are what Tibbels calls "gut-rehabs", totally renovated from the inside out, while a number are completely new structures.
The main obstacle for New Song is funding-Sandtown Habitat requires $5 to $6 million every year to build houses, plus extra for additional buildings like the future New Song Center.
Otherwise, getting the support of volunteers has never been a problem, and demand is certainly not lacking. A family selection committee reviews hundreds of applications and selects new homeowners based on need and willingness to fully participate in the program.
And after all the hours of planning and labor, after the efforts of hundreds of people involved on so many levels, Sandtown Habitat likes to celebrate the eventual house dedication in style. Last November, members of the Baltimore Ravens, with Habitat staff and volunteers, came together to celebrate the completion of a new home in the 1400 block of Presstman Street.
"That's the culmination of the whole process, the moment the homeowner receives the key to the house," Tibbels said. "That's what it's all about."
But life in Sandtown still remains an uphill battle for many.
"It'll be a long, slow, steady process," Tibbels reflected. "It's still really hard for families to survive."
"Habitat shows what's possible. It's a great sign of hope," he said. "A great way to show a diverse group working together in unity."
That's the Sandtown story Allan Tibbels wants people to remember, free from the drugs, the violence, the poverty and unemployment.
"The world is so divided, but here's a group that's working in unison ... Yeah, that's a pretty amazing story," he said.
