Baltimore church urges city action on illegal dumping lot

A church on East 23rd Street is pressing Baltimore to clear a vacant lot that neighbors say has turned into a dumping ground, with piles of soil, concrete, asphalt and other trash sitting across from Saint Matthews New Life United Methodist Church in northeast Baltimore.

The parcel once held rowhouses before they were torn down more than a decade ago. Now, church leaders and nearby residents say the empty land has become a daily reminder of neighborhood neglect, not a site of pride. Reverend Andre Brisco Jr. said the lot used to be used for block parties by nearby parishes, but since 2020 it has become a blight that has undercut efforts to strengthen the community.

Brisco has said the dumping has continued despite years of conversations with city officials. For congregants and neighbors who walk past the lot, the problem is not abstract. It is the same block, the same church, and the same growing pile of debris returning again and again.

The city’s response has centered on ownership and enforcement. The parcels are owned either by the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore or by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City. City officials say the land was never intended to serve as a refuse site and said dirt was dumped there a few years ago when the issue first surfaced. That gap between what residents see on the ground and what City Hall says about the parcel is at the heart of the dispute.

Baltimore defines illegal dumping as the disposal of waste on public or private property without the owner’s knowledge or consent, including littering in streets and alleys. The city’s Department of Housing and Community Development handles illegal-dumping enforcement as part of its code work, and the agency says it responds to nearly 70,000 citizen requests from 311 each year. Baltimore also runs a 311 system for residents to report problems and track service requests.

The lot on East 23rd Street sits inside a larger citywide fight over vacant property, trash and uneven service delivery. Baltimore has moved to tighten enforcement, including 2024 changes to how certain surveillance images can be inspected and shared for illegal-dumping cases, and 2025 legislation sought to raise some ordinance penalties from $1,000 to as much as $10,000. In another illegal-dumping investigation, the city was reported to use about 100 cameras to watch roughly 60 known dump sites.

The financial cost is sizable. WMAR reported that Baltimore spent more than $26 million in fiscal 2024 on cleaning services for illegal dumping, street sweeping and graffiti removal. For Saint Matthews New Life and the block around it, the issue is more immediate: a vacant lot that should have been cleared long ago instead remains a visible marker of how some neighborhoods can be left to absorb decay on their own.