The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services has declared a winter shelter warning for Sunday, February 16, 2025, at 4 pm until Friday, February 21, 2025, at 9 am. Call 211 (available 24/7) or 443-984-9540 to connect with shelter. Get more info here.

X
Sojourner Place at Oliver Land Acknowledgement

09.10.21

On Thursday, September 9 we gathered to acknowledge the distinct histories of the land on which we build, celebrate the neighborhood and break ground on the future Sojourner Place at Oliver. In 14 months, affordable one, two and three bedroom apartments on this site will welcome 70 individuals and families home.

Below are President and CEO Kevin Lindamood's remarks from the morning.


With every construction project, great time and energy go into surfacing the distinctive character of the land on which we build. The project team depends on a thorough examination of the past uses of this property; they work to understand how that history affects the soil. The history of the land and the people who lived on it shape the present day and our possible future.

In that spirit, we start today's program with a land acknowledgement. This might be a new concept for many. Grounded in indigenous history, land acknowledgement offered by non-indigenous people is a way to recognize a history that has been deliberately erased and to move forward, informed by that history, toward a more just future.

Baltimore City is the ancestral home to the Paskestikweya (Pist-ka-tanh-wah) people, translated into English as Piscataway. We stand at the tip of a vast coastal area that sustained indigenous peoples until the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s. The Piscataway peoples were decimated, absorbed by larger tribes and eventually forced to move west.

This land was shared in common with the Susquehannock Tribe. The tribe suffered genocide at the hands of colonists. Known descendants are among the Iroquois and Lenape Tribes today.

We acknowledge past and present citizens of the Cedarville Band of the Piscataway Conoy, the Piscataway Indian Nation, Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Susquehannock Tribe, and the many members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina who have and continue to make Baltimore their home. We acknowledge that we stand on stolen land.

A traditional purpose of a land acknowledgement is to relate to the environment – the earth, the trees, the rivers and people who surround and precede us. However, we feel compelled to continue our acknowledgements because there are further truths that need telling…

Following colonization in the 1700-1800s, what is now Oliver was largely farmland. Indentured servants from Ireland, Scotland and England and enslaved peoples from Africa worked this land and created the early economic power of White Baltimoreans and Marylanders.

Still, some fifty years before the Emancipation Proclamation, East Baltimore was a mecca of sorts for free Black people. Black communities here raised leaders like Isaac Myers, John W. Locks, John A. Fernandis and the famous abolitionist, orator, newspaper publisher and author Frederick Douglass.

In pursuit of opportunity, Black families moved into the city from around the state and, later, into the Oliver neighborhood from southern states at the beginning of the Great Migration. White city leaders, including Mayor James Preston, responded to the growth of Black residents with race-based ordinances. Baltimore became the test case for legalized housing segregation. While the judicial branch of the federal government deemed the ordinances unconstitutional, a newly created Federal Housing Administration advanced segregation with "red-lining" – a deliberate act of disinvestment.

Through racial covenants, redlining and racist policies spanning into the present day; we acknowledge that the people of the Oliver neighborhood have been denied equal opportunities for health and wealth.

The land you see before you supported row homes where generations grew up, went to school, started families of their own and had careers. The Joseph G. Locks Funeral Home, one of the nation’s oldest Black-owned businesses once operated on this land. The last remaining structure today once housed a community gathering space and social club - the Eastside Association Reindeer Club.  

It is true that racist exploitation and theft impacted the Oliver neighborhood. It is equally true that East Baltimore's history of Black activists and business leaders carries a proud legacy as well.

Faith leaders and current residents – as private citizens and through groups like the Oliver Community Association, Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development, OC 250 (O C two-fifty), and The 6th Branch – are serving the community by growing free produce, engaging youth in community concerts and basketball games, and drawing financial investment into the neighborhood.

To activists and residents of the Oliver neighborhood, past and present, we acknowledge you. May the quality affordable housing to rise on this land bring additional investment.

Names matter. Isabella Bomfree, born into slavery in 1797, would grow to realize the importance of names – who they represent and what they lift up. In 1843, she renamed herself Sojourner Truth and became a nationally-known activist against slavery and for voting rights, civil rights and women’s rights.

This building – Sojourner Place – named in her spirit, will not be known by its address on Preston Street – the street named after the very same Mayor Preston – but will be named instead in honor of this community: Sojourner Place at Oliver.

We stand on stolen land. We stand on redlined land. We stand with this community to make possible quality affordable housing to prevent and end homelessness. 


View Photos from the event

More Recent News


01.31.25

February 1st marks the start of Black History Month. During this time, we have a chance to focus on the significant role Black populations have played in shaping the world and to celebrate their contributions to society that have often gone overlooked.

2725
01.28.25

Any change in administration brings new policy priorities. Recent actions by the federal Administration, Congressional leadership and the Supreme Court outline dramatic policy changes in the years ahead that could negatively affect the people we serve. The agency will be guided by the following principles, consistent with our approach over the past 40 years.

2717
A dark-skinned woman smiles at the camera. She's wearing a blue baseball cap and a yellow t-shirt with the Health Care for the Homeless logo.
01.21.25

Pass the Mic features the voices and stories of people with a lived experience of homelessness. In this edition, hear from Deborah - a US Army veteran, Bingo lover and lifelong volunteer. 

2711
Three people smile for a selfie
01.21.25

Follow a “Day in the life” of SOAR, one of our littlest known programs that makes a big impact for people experiencing homelessness with mental health disabilities. SOAR Coordinator Mina Davis-Harrison and Disability Outreach Assistant Specialists Dave Ramsey and Natasha Legette facilitate the national “SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery” program for all of Baltimore City.

2710

View All News

Copyright © 2025 Health Care for the Homeless.

All Rights Reserved.

OUR HEADQUARTERS

421 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD 21202

Phone: 410-837-5533

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram