Advocates for Baltimore’s homeless community are calling on Maryland’s General Assembly to investigate living conditions at several hotels the city purchased and turned into shelters.
This comes one week after an inspector general report detailed mold and mushrooms growing inside one of the properties, along with other health issues.
The city said it has taken steps to address maintenance issues and make sure problems do not arise again, but some residents are still scarred by what they went through.
A family’s battle with mold
Two years ago, city leaders celebrated as they cut the ribbon on their newest purchases — several downtown hotels to house the homeless. They cost more than $15 million in federal taxpayer funds through the American Rescue Plan Act.
But for Marcus Clark and his family, their room at the former Sleep Inn on Fallsway turned into a nightmare when he went to the hospital experiencing severe breathing problems.
“I started experiencing symptoms that felt like a heart attack,” Clark told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren…