Mayor Releases Emergency Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness

Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young released his COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness

Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young released his COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan for People Experiencing Homelessness. This plan is an effort to mitigate risk for individuals in this vulnerable population. Mayor Young directed the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services (MOHS) to work in partnership with homeless service providers and public and private agencies, to implement a range of prevention and response strategies to support individuals who are at particularly high risk of contracting communicable diseases and unable to self-isolate at home.

“The primary function of government is to protect the health and well-being of its residents, especially children, older adults and residents experiencing homelessness,” Mayor Young said. “We must protect our homeless neighbors and mitigate their risk of infection the same way we do the rest of the city’s residents. In most cases, this means providing them access for testing and space to self-isolate, if needed. Our homeless neighbors are a part of this city and if we don’t protect them we leave our city exposed to greater risk.”

For more information on the plan, please visit here.

Mayor approves stipend for essential personnel required to work through COVID-19
On Wednesday, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced the COVID-19 Pandemic Mission Critical Stipend. Baltimore City’s front-line, public-facing employees, including firefighters, EMTs, and police officers, will receive an additional $200.00 bi-weekly, to ease burdens as they continue to work to keep residents safe during this public health emergency. Other mission critical employees will receive an additional $100.00 bi-weekly.

“It is critical that we provide any relief we can to our front line employees to ease burdens at home while they continue to go to work on behalf of the city and its residents,” Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said.

The stipend becomes effective on Monday, March 30, 2020, and will be on employees’ first scheduled payroll checks.

For more information on this news, please visit here.

Mayor Unveils Website With COVID-19 Resources
Today, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young announced the release of a new City website dedicated to COVID-19. Mayor Young issued the following statement:

“As we continue to work across the City to provide essential services for residents while also protecting their health and well-being, we know that centralizing critical information is key to our efforts,” Mayor Young said. “We can’t let misinformation and rumors lead people to make poor decisions about their health and this virus.”

The website includes information on the City’s food distribution and resource efforts, clinical guidance for healthcare providers, and downloadable infographics for sharing on social media. The site also includes resources and links for residents looking to volunteer or donate to people or organizations in need.

The website represents the next step in the City’s communications strategy to blanket Baltimore with information and resources about COVID-19 for residents.

Mayor Young Announces Updated Service Changes Resulting from Statewide Executive Order

Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young recently announced additional services changes for the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, the Department of Transportation, the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, and the Parking Authority of Baltimore City in response to the recent statewide executive order to further encourage social distancing to support public health and safety. Mayor Young issued the following statement:

“Several of our agencies have adjusted their service hours and operations as they respond to the spread of COVID-19,” Mayor Young said. “We have taken these measures to protect the health and safety of our City employees and the residents of Baltimore City as we work to continue performing core, essential services.”

Parking Authority of Baltimore The Parking Authority of Baltimore remains closed. However, staff are available to assist the public via email at [email protected] or by phone at (443) 573-2800. No employees will be working from the office until the emergency has been lifted.

• Parking meters/parking meter restrictions will not be in effect for this period.
• No payment is required at parking meters.

Baltimore Municipal and Zoning Appeals (BMZA) As of today, BMZA has suspended all operations. No new appeals will be accepted and all hearings in April are hereby suspended until further notice. New appeals and rescheduled hearings will be scheduled and heard on an expedited basis when operations resume.

Mayor’s Office of Employment Development MOED has suspended the operation of its adult and youth service locations due to COVID-19. This impacts a number of the services. Those seeking help with finding employment or other supports are encouraged to visit their Website at MOED.baltimorecity.gov for links to resources that are available at this time.

Department of Transportation The Department of Transportation (DOT) will scale back its employee workforce in order to comply with social distancing protocols. On-call crews will be used to perform daily agency operations, which will be significantly reduced. As a result, the following services will be affected:

• The enforcement of Residential Permit Parking, street cleaning parking, 48-hour parking, abandoned vehicles and peak hour parking violations will be suspended. Transportation Enforcement Officers will focus on citing immediate safety and pedestrian issues.
• Vehicle towing operations will be significantly reduced and will focus on immediate safety issues. The city’s impound facilities at Pulaski Highway and Fallsway remain closed to the public.
• DOT Maintenance crews and operations will be scaled back to focus on emergency and critical issues related to the repair of roadways, signs, lighting, etc.
• Traffic calming studies will be postponed.
• Federal contract work will continue to operate throughout the City of Baltimore. This includes bridge, buildings and reconstruction/streetscape projects.
• Paving and sidewalk work (except for federally funded projects) will be postponed.
• Conduit contractors will reduce their work forces and respond only to critical BGE related repairs.
• DOT’s Right-of-Way office remains closed to the public and permit requests should be submitted online.
• Parking meter payments/restrictions will not be enforced for this period.

“Thank you to the leadership and staff at each of these agencies for their continued contributions to making sure city services run as smoothly as possible during this challenging time,” Mayor Young said. “I ask that residents support the City’s efforts at containing COVID-19 by continuing to practice social distancing and reaching out to those departments who have suspended in-person service through other avenues available to them.”