Baltimore, Urban Renewal, and the Production of Racialized Urban Poverty

This chapter explores the urban renewal processes and neoliberalization of Baltimore, MD, in relation to homelessness. From the 1940s to the 1960s, slum clearances, employment challenges from deindustrialization, inadequate housing, and systemic racism initiated the racialized urban poverty of the city and homelessness still evident today. A repositioning of the role of government in contemporary society from one of managing the welfare of its citizenry to the promotion and management of the city as a motor of private capital accumulation resulted in the city’s inner harbor, a built testament to decades of neoliberal transformation. Simultaneously, the state shifted responsibility for citizen welfare to nongovernmental agencies, such as nonprofit organizations, public-private partnerships, and private initiatives. Within the gaps in social welfare and service provision, nonprofit organizations emerged. Back on My Feet is one of the creative, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit organizations emerging within these wider urban and societal processes.