As of July 30, 2025, all residents of the apartment building I lived in at 1627 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, have been moved out, due to the awful place's problems. This is what Jubilee Baltimore did, but they claim to be wonderful landlords who make properties and adjacent areas much better. They are a nonprofit entity who steadily solicits donations.
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We residents who dwelled at 1627 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, lived a nightmare life. The building is a four-story former school built in 1922. The Polish National Alliance had owned all four floors, but some years ago they sold the top two floors to be turned into apartments. They sold it to Charlie Duff's Jubilee Baltimore. Jubilee is a nonprofit that solicits donations. Charlie has since then retired.
From their website: "Founded in 1980, Jubilee Baltimore is a nonprofit organization, helping the people of Baltimore build safe, stable, historic, attractive, diverse neighborhoods. We develop commercial properties, affordable and market-rate housing and we have extensive experience in historic renovation and community planning."
They may very well do good somewhere in Baltimore, but not with these PNA building apartments.
The roof of the school building was collapsing, and the PNA membership had shrunk to the point they could not afford to repair the roof. Jubilee was tasked to have the roof repaired and then placed air conditioning units there and that makes Jubilee responsible for the roof, for which they are very irresponsible about. The roof has never been right since Jubilee took over. On two occasions, rainwater came in and ruined the wooden floor of the old school auditorium on the first floor. PNA paid around $50,000 a pop for those indoor flood repairs. That auditorium is nicely painted and maintained, which makes it a good place for social events.
The roof still leaks, and the ceiling of one fourth floor apartment is leaking in several spots every time it rains. That ceiling is falling down in places.
Rainwater shorts out our elevator, and it is rarely back in service quickly. It has happened four time since I've been here two years, and once for ten days. With most of us residents being disabled elderly. Just prior to me moving in, the elevator had been out for five weeks during which time one resident had to stay in a hospital because she struggled down the four floors of steps to go to a doctor appointment then when her doctor found out he refused to allow her to go back home and try to walk back up them.
The elevator cables and some other parts have been wet and dry so many times they are rusted and unsafe. When the elevator moves you here the rusty parts making bad sounds, while the car shakes crazily. Everyone here is afraid of it.
To top it off on the lousy stuff here, the first-floor entranceway inside double door that leads to the steps was locked by maintenance and residents were not given keys. Consequently, in case of fire the heavy locking mechanism will have to be busted off by fire fighters. Many times at building fires, outside people come in to help. If a resident who was sitting outside the front door as we often do, or they came down on the elevator, they could allow volunteer rescuers to go in the front door but not the double doors at the end of the entranceway.
When the elevator goes out, no one can get up the stairs. This is asinine.
Charlie was supposed to pay the PNA half of what it cost for repairs to the front door, plus an upgrade to an electric handicap entrance but never has. The PNA approached Mr. Duff about him paying to repair the consistently leaking roof, and he told them that if they go ahead and pay for the roof, he'd pay them back. They know he would not honor the debt, so the roof remains a dangerous problem. Leaking water can start a fire.
A few years ago, Jubilee owed taxes on their floors and the PNA paid them. Charlie Duff - the now retired top dog at Jubilee - then had a certain grace period to pay the tax amount with interest to the PNA and he did the day before his deadline. The PNA is quite peeved about that, because they want him out.
It is alleged that Duff had Jubilee's finances so messed up that certain people wanted him to straighten it out before he retired.
The PNA investigated their chances at suing Charlie Duff, but he owes so many taxes and other fees on so many properties that if all of Jubilee were foreclosed on in settlement the governments take their tax money first and that means nothing left for the offended PNA.
The PNA desperately desires to take back floors three and floor from Jubilee. Several years ago, Charlie Duff was delinquent on his taxes for those top two floors and Jubilee paid them. Unfortunately, he had a grace period to pay PNA, and the man paid the day before his deadline. Very frustrating to the Polish National Alliance.
Charlie Duff is a well know Baltimorean, including for his architecture books and talks he gave about architectural history at numerous prestigious events. He is a frequent lecturer at the Waters Art Museum, Johns Hopkins University, and Morgon State University. He's past president of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and some community boards like the Paterson Park Community Development Corporation. Along with lifetime achievement awards from the Urban Land Institute and Preservation Maryland. He is also the only male honorary member of the women's organization the Mount Vernon Club.
Sadley, by what I know he has done to make my life, along with other residents here and the PNA folks, feel terrible he may have fully bamboozled all his supporters.
That is my mostly empty living room. I have never lived so slovenly. I have many framed photos, much memorabilia, an old post card collection, other collectables, antiques and other good items to decorate with but it's all in my storage locker. I never wanted to be stuck here, so I can't bring in my lifetime worth of possessions. I have hoped to find a financial way out since the day after I moved in. My bedroom has a bed and a stool for a night table, plus a rickety old wooden chair. That's all. Very demoralizing.
How in the world did that place pass inspections!?
Over a year ago, seven of us residents at 1627 Eastern Ave signed on with a lawyer to do a class action suit against Jubilee. Richard Hackerman. He has not done a thing about it. The dimwit resident who got us the lawyer had used Hackerman for taxes. Hackerman is a Tax Lawyer and Baltimore Bankruptcy Attorney. After we unfortunate seven finished signing legal documents to hire Hackerman, he was sliding the paperwork into a desk tray, I heard him mutter, "Now I have to figure out how to go about this."
A neighbor - Bruce - down the hall from me died several months ago, and his apartment is absolutely unlivable. It is wrecked, filthy, moldy, has some seriously years old cobwebs hanging, mouse feces everywhere, crud on the bottoms of ceiling lights, and he was without running water for six years. I don't know how it passed inspections, so somebody was paid off. A former resident was complaining to a city official or politician about the numerous code and housing violations endemic here at 1627 Eastern Ave, and they said that there would be no more private contractors doing inspections and it will always be city personnel from then on.
For the dozen years he was here, Bruce's place kept the hallways stunk of urine and more 24/7, but no Jubilee personnel who came here and knew that did anything. After a ton of filthy possessions were removed from deceased Bruce's home, it is empty. The door has never been locked since then, but I don't worry about homeless going in there because it is intolerable to breath in that mess. Two weeks after the cleanout, I was going to the laundry room down the hall and the foul air nearly knocked me down went I went all woozy and felt faint. A few days later, I was cooking and baking in my kitchen - which is where my apartment door is - and the smell of Bruce's place was stronger than the food being fixed. The smell had invaded my home, so I went down to Bruce's to see what it was from. I opened his door, saw that it was a horror show then went back and brought out my camera. I needed to collect evidence of why we residents here were still being assaulted by the awful odors.
(I wrote the following in Oct. 2024 after I shot the video. Then used it as a script to narrate the video.)
I am stunned, sick and stewing from the emotional & olfactory shock of experiencing the absolute crud and stench of a recently diseased neighbor's apartment down the hall from my 3rd floor apartment 306 in the Polish National Alliance building at 1627 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore City. My neighbor in 302, named Bruce, died a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, he and his apartment have always stunk from his urine. He went out every morning to buy food, and you will see in the video why - his kitchen is far too filthy for preparing food. Bruce had no contact with relatives or friends. He was a pleasant fellow, whom other neighbors and I liked.
Our rental agent hired three men with a pickup truck to clean Bruce's mess out. Those guys were suffering on the job and did not even have masks on or other protective wear that the horrific task required - legally. It is a horribly contaminated situation, which seriously endangered the health of those men and anyone at their homes who may have come in contact with their resulting contaminated clothing. It should have been a professional hazmat outfit. Those three men dragged a bunch of large, heavy gage black plastic bags out front and piled them up high. Neighbors were amazed at the amount of crap that came out of Bruce's efficiency apartment. No one can figure how it all fit in there.
As those men carried stuff out and down the elevator, they spread contaminating debris on the floors, which two women neighbors kept coming out and cleaning up. One lady said something about bed bugs, and there was mouse feces, along with bird excretions from Bruce having an open window with a small table by it where he fed pigeons and maybe other birds. I saw the table in the trash pile covered with bird poop.
Several years ago, before I moved in, Bruce had the hallway so steadily stunk from having 15 cats crapping and peeing everywhere in there that he was forced to get rid of cats. The apartment has never been cleaned in the decade or so he lived there. The hallway has stunk so sickeningly that I never allow anyone I know to come here, which keeps me from family and friends plus any attractive woman I might meet here in Fells Point.
Bruce's next-door neighbor said she once was walking her garbage down the hall as Bruce exited his place and when she stopped to exchange brief pleasantries she saw a, "Tornado of flies swirling in the kitchen."
Many of those flies now have moved in on me, and I am steadily killing them. I never had to have a fly swatter till now, and in 10 days the sticky fly strips I've hung are covered in various flies. Bruce's place suffers massive mold problems, which may be migrating all through the building. The mice definitely moved out through the entire 100-year-old school building turned into apartments.
That neighbor told me she had asked the rental agent, Jean, why she allowed Bruce to live there that way, and the reply allegedly was, "Because he pays his rent."
I cannot understand how city inspectors never knew, and Bruce I do believe had federal funded help with his rent. The apartment rentals here are owned by some corporation that probably has many investors, and you will see in the video how they are being cheated out of owning valuable 'stock' in this place. It is doubtful that most people involved in that ownership are OK with how it is here.
It's a law-breaking shame that Bruce was permitted to live in & destroy that apartment, while making life here at 1627 Eastern Ave. lousy.
To me, these miserable memories are probably going to be in my sleep as bad dreams of the living nightmare I'm in.
The video is practicably a horror show, from which I and other residents need to get out of but cannot afford to.
