Press Conference: No New Bills, Evictions for Baltimore Public Housing

Public Housing Tenants to Hold Urgent Press Conference on Sudden Electric Bills and Eviction Threats

Contact:
Reverend Annie Chambers
Email: annie@forallof.us
Phone: Call 443-768-7682 | Text 410-996-4848

Press Conference:
Date: Monday, May 19, 2025
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Outside Douglass Homes Public Housing Office
1500 E. Lexington Street (Corner of Orleans & N. Caroline St), Baltimore, MD 21231

BALTIMORE, MD — The tenants of Douglass Homes and other public housing communities in Baltimore are holding an emergency press conference on Monday, May 19th, to speak out against a sudden, unannounced electricity billing program imposed by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC).

Tenants have begun receiving threatening letters claiming they owe hundreds or even thousands of dollars in “excess electricity charges”—charges which were never included in their leases and are allegedly based on individual metering. However, residents and tenant advocates assert that no such apartment-level electric meters exist at Douglass Homes, which is built in townhouse style and has no interior hallways where meters might be installed.

Residents say the meters used are for entire buildings, not individual units, and that HABC is wrongly assigning whole-building electric usage to individual tenants, many of whom are elderly, disabled, and low-income families. The Housing Authority has begun sending these tenants to collections and threatening lease termination.

The press conference will be hosted by Douglass Homes tenant Rev. Annie Chambers. Chambers is a former HUD Resident Advisory Board member, former Black Panther, co-founder of the Maryland Food Bank and legendary advocate for the poor. Assisting her is local entrepreneur and national human rights organizer Ian Schlakman. Tenants facing eviction over these surprise bills will be present and available for one-on-one interviews with journalists following the press conference.

"These families are being told they owe money they never agreed to pay, based on meters that don’t even exist for their units," said Rev. Annie Chambers. "Way back in 1963 I marched with Martin Luther King Jr for the right to housing and I will not allow the Housing Authority of Baltimore City to turn back the clock on our right to housing!"

The organizers are calling for a full investigation, immediate halt to collections and eviction threats, and transparency from HABC on metering, billing, and resident protections.

Members of the media are encouraged to attend. Tenants will provide firsthand accounts of receiving eviction threats over these charges and the impact these sudden bills are having on their families. Official letters directly from HABC to the tenants with the threat of evictions will be made available.