04-14-2024 Education - Flipbook - Page 3
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, April 14, 2024 3
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Shiron Lindsay '08, a former Suzanne G. and Murray A. Valenstein Baltimore Incentive Awards scholar at UMD, lives out the university's "Do Good" ideals by giving back to her hometown; she buys, renovates
and rents out homes in Baltimore to those most in need.
Credit: John T. Consoli
Buying Into Baltimore’s Comeback
UMD Alum Invests in Affordable Housing to Revitalize City Communities
By Maggie Haslam
S
hiron Lindsay ’08 stands in front
of a modest rowhouse in southwest
Baltimore and looks out beyond the
small front gate to the neighborhood of Morrell Park. Chairs and
potted plants cluster on front porches. The
joyful squeals of children permeate the crisp
spring air. A community center is within eyesight, an elementary school around the corner.
They’re the characteristics Lindsay looks
for in a community—places where she hopes
she can help families make a new start in the
wake of difficult circumstances. For the last
four years, the instructional technology specialist in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPSS)
has quietly purchased homes across the city
and rehabbed them largely with her own sweat
equity and savings to provide safe, dignified
housing for individuals emerging from addiction, poverty and homelessness.
fearlesslyforward.umd.edu
“I’ve seen how having a nice, safe place to
live can really change a person’s situation,” she
said. “And I want to change the landscape for
families, for communities, in Baltimore.”
Born and raised in West Baltimore,
Lindsay was one of nine city students to earn
a full scholarship in 2004 to the University of
Maryland as part of the C.D. Mote, Jr. Incentive
Awards Program (IAP), which recruits exceptional students from underserved communities
and guides them through their undergraduate
experience.
Shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree
in mechanical engineering, BCPSS officials
approached her to teach engineering and
computer science to middle schoolers. Over
the next 10 years, she nurtured a passion for
STEM at her alma mater, Baltimore Polytechnic
Institute. While she saw her impact on students
academically, unstable living situations played
out in daily in the classroom.
“You really have to think about how they’re
showing up to school,” she said. “And having a
stable place to live, a place to get ready in the
morning, that can really influence a student’s
ability to learn.”
She purchased her first rental property in
the Cold Spring area in 2020 after driving by
the abandoned rowhouse on a “cute block” on
the way to work. More properties followed,
with Lindsay working with community partners and Baltimore’s Department of Housing
and Community Development to find families
and individuals in need to rent them. Building
equity in one house to finance the next, she
now owns four homes across the city, and lives
out the ideals of the university’s commitment
to Do Good.
“Shiron is doing what we’ve always intended
our students to do, and that’s leverage their
skills, knowledge and passion to benefit their
community,” said IAP Director Jaqueline Lee.
One of Lindsay’s tenants, Antwanette
Pittman, had been saving for two years to escape
the drug-infested area of Baltimore where she
lived but would not let her family visit her.
When Lindsay took her through the house in
Cold Spring with its freshly painted walls, shiny
hardwood floors and friendly neighbors, she
knew, “This was it.”
“I had promised my granddaughter that I
would find a place where she could have her
own room. It’s just a very big difference,” she
said.
Lindsay has had plenty of doubts about her
path, particularly late at night, when she’s chiseling pink tile off an old bathroom wall. People
have stared in disbelief when she shares her
plan to eventually purchase a city block.
“People wonder why I would choose to buy
in the city, but people need good places to live
everywhere,” she said. “I want to see Baltimore
thrive. I want to be part of the solution.”
