Ground Rent in Baltimore: The Story of Racial Capitalism, Housing Inequity, and Systemic Injustice

Keywords: ground rent, colonialism, property, ejectment, baltimore
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 74

Abstract

In Baltimore, Maryland, more than 50,000 households—roughly 30% of all single-family residences—are subject to ground rent, a legacy of British colonial property law. Under this landlord-tenant system, the tenant makes payments to the ground leaseholder who maintains rights to the land, regardless of whether individuals own their own home or redeem their ground rent by making a lump sum payment to buy out of the lease. In this paper, we map the uneven and racialized geography of ground rent in Baltimore. Drawing on work by early critical Marxist geographers (Harvey and Chatterjee 1974; Walker 1974; Smith 1979) and anti-Blackness as a necessary precondition for the perpetuation of capitalism (Melamed 2015; McKittrick 2011), we provide an overview of the ground rent system in Baltimore and accompanying housing inequality and injustice. We focus on predatory abuses during the late 1990s and early 2000s when property values escalated in Baltimore, coinciding with an economic recession. During this period, many Baltimoreans fell behind on their ground rent and were “ejected” from their homes as ground leaseholders took ownership (as collateral). Maryland lawmakers responded by passing housing protections in 2004, but these protections were overturned by the Maryland Supreme Court in 2014. In this paper, we explore the uneven racialized geography of ground rent in Baltimore, and underscore how the practice is foundational for understanding systemic housing inequity and wealth inequality in Baltimore. We conclude by rethinking geographies of core urban political economy contributions with understandings of racial capitalism.