The Baltimore Banner, June 4, 2024, The Baltimore Banner: A Worker-Owned Co-Op Is Giving Baltimore’s Vacant Homes — And People — A Second Chance
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for when a city contains more than 13,000 vacant homes and some 20,000 empty lots.
Instead, Baltimore’s vast vacant housing landscape has ushered in waves of new ideas — and people, all hoping to slice off a piece of the pie.
WaterBottle, a worker-owned cooperative, is one such example. It includes a property management division and construction service under its umbrella and spreads control of the operation among its employees, with no formal hierarchy and a one-person, one-vote system of governance. It owns 22 properties in West Baltimore, where it’s restoring dilapidated buildings and renting them out with first dibs offered to the workers.
