Greater Baltimore Housing Development Corporation ( GBHDC)
Administrative History: The Greater Baltimore Housing Development Corporation (GBHDC), a subsidiary of the Greater Baltimore Connnittee (GBC)l was formally established in April 1967 to assist in the development of low and moderate-income housing in metropolitan Baltimore. Originally, the GBHDC intended to form and stimulate non-profit housing organizations and thus acted to provide technical services, consultant advice and seed capital to church and neighborhood organizations for them to develop housing. It raised money through the sale of debenture bonds to solicited GBC members. Eventually, the GBHDC became a developer itself, working with the subsidized programs of the Federal Housing Administration. Subsidiary corporations like the GBHDC-Shipley Hill Corporation were established to manage specific projects of the GBHDC. Its projects encompassed both single-family and multi-family units, both rehabilitated and new housing, and both sale and rental developments. These projects were located in both Baltimore City and Baltimore County, and both within and beyond urban renewal areas.A Board of Directors headed the GBHDC. The directors were designated by the Executive Committee of the GBC and included the Mayor of Baltimore, the President of the Baltimore City Council, the Chairman of the Baltimore City Planning Commission and the Commissioner of Housing of Baltimore. Among the persons important in administering the GBHDC were Leonard C. Gore, the Assistant Executive Director of the GBC who was frequently designated as the housing consultant from the GBHDC; William Boucher III, the Executive Director of the GBC and its liaison with the GBHDC; and Raymond M. Ehrhart, the Controller of the GBHDC.
As the GBHDC had incurred substantial financial losses, the Executive Committee of the GBC decided on October 13, 1972 to liquidate it. A subsequent report in 1973 attributed the financial difficulties of the GBHDC to neighborhood instability, vandalism, the difficulty of obtaining competent builders, and to a number of problems with the Federal housing programs. 2 The process of liquidation allowed for the assumption by the GBC of all legitimate obligations of the GBHDC and for the completion of all projects underway. Several of the projects evidently took several years to .be settled, and much of the information concerning them during this period is to be found within related GBC records.
Significant Activities: Much of this collection concerns the two GBHDC projects undertaken to rebuild "slot housing" on Carey Street and to build the Shipley Hill apartment houses. Other projects of note in the collection include those to build houses on Fulton Avenue, to rehabilitate houses in the Gay Street urban renewal area, and to build relocation housing for displaced blacks in East Towson (Baltimore County). Also, the GBHDC cooperated with such non-profit housing sponsors as the Fells Point Home Renewal, Inc., an interdenominational organization; Meadco, an association of Baltimore City municipal employees; the New Town Non-Profit Housing Corporation; and the Reisterstown Non-Profit Corporation.
Significant Names: William Boucher III, Frank W. Denton, Robert C. Embry, Raymond M.Ehrhart, Leonard C. Gore.
Significant Subjects: housing projects, apartment houses, low income housing, housing rehabilitation, non-profit housing organizations, relocation, local housing authorities, contractors, mortgage fianance, mortgage banks, Federal housing programs, Model Cities programs, urban renewal areas, community associations, business - social aspects.
Related Collections: The Greater Baltimore Committee collection contains: minutes, reports, and correspondence on the GBHDC.
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1.The GBC is a private, non-profit business organization concerned with orderly development and renewal in metropolitan Baltimore.
2. Greater Baltimore Commiittee, Draft Report of the Special Committee of Executive Committee Regarding Greater Baltimore Housing DevelopmentCorporation, January 10, 1973, GBC Readers, January 1973.