JPMorgan Chase helped revive Detroit. Now they’re betting big on Baltimore.

Following the bank’s rapid expansion into the region, JPMorgan Chase pledged $20 million in 2022 through 2027 to small businesses, entrepreneurs and community developers focused on curbing the city’s vacant housing epidemic. The firm believes its business here depends on a stronger working class and is putting money in the hands of those who can supply jobs, wages and affordable housing.

Private sector involvement in Baltimore has been slower moving than Detroit, said Mark Anthony Thomas, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee. Some have long regarded Baltimore as unstable, owing to decades of one-term mayors, city corruption scandals and sometimes unsupportive state leadership. A fractured civic network with ill-defined roles also scared some investors away, Thomas said. But a new generation of city and state leaders is changing perceptions, Thomas said. Their first point of attack: the city’s surplus of vacant homes.

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Source: The Baltimore Banner