2021 Fellow

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Bree Jones

Parity

Baltimore is known as one of the first cities to practice racial discrimination in land based policy. The practice of redlining has created an enormous racial wealth disparity, and gutted healthy and thriving Black neighborhoods nationwide. In Baltimore specifically, it has resulted in tens of thousands of abandoned and dilapidated buildings located mostly in low-income and/or Black neighborhoods. These high levels of blight and population loss in East and West Baltimore lock communities in a downward economic spiral. Bree founded Parity to reverse this trajectory, revitalizing hyper-distressed neighborhoods by creating pathways for social networks to collectively buy homes by the block as a means of community building, wealth building and social justice.

Over the course of the Fellowship, Bree will implement Parity’s pilot project to rehabilitate 96 abandoned buildings across 10 contiguous blocks in West Baltimore to combat gentrification and create affordable home ownership opportunities for historically redlined populations. To date, Parity has garnered the commitments of 20 prequalified Black homebuyers.

Through this work Bree has spearheaded an innovative model for development without displacement. Parity’s activities are shifting systems to develop the most distressed neighborhoods in West Baltimore and create wealth-building opportunities, while retaining place-based human legacy and culture.

I started Parity in response to the gentrification and displacement I witnessed in my own hometown. So much of this work is about the reclamation of power and agency for Black communities, especially as it pertains to land and place. We’re ensuring people who have been historically disinvested of wealth are able to participate in and benefit from reinvestment into their communities, through ownership and equity creation.

–Bree Jones