Baltimore
Baltimore Safe Haven announces expanded services in new building
LGBTQ group provides housing, health, legal, other programs
The LGBTQ community services organization Baltimore Safe Haven announced it intends to expand its services in a recently acquired building that it’s currently renovating at 806 North Collington Avenue near the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
“The new facility, named the Mary Lynn Washington Building and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Community Hub and Resource Center, is set to open soon, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing mission to create safe and inclusive spaces for all,” a statement released by the group on Dec. 30 says.
“The expansion would not have been possible without the generous support and commitment of our community donors,” the statement says.
A report by Baltimore’s WMAR 2 TV news says the building’s rooms will accommodate two dozen people “who need transitional or permanent housing and will include clinical resources under the same roof.”
The TV news report says Baltimore Safe Haven’s founder and CEO, Iya Dammons, completed the purchase of the building over the Christmas weekend but neither the news report nor the Safe Haven statement disclosed the building’s purchase price.
“We extend our deepest gratitude to [Maryland State] Senator Mary Washington, Congressman Kweisi Mfume, Mayor Brandon Scott, Borealis Philanthropy, the Astraea Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, MOHS, COC, and MDH,” the statement says. “Their unwavering support has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life,” it says.
“The new community hub will serve as a one-stop resource center, providing expanded clinic services in collaboration with the University of Maryland, including mental health and wellness programming,” according to the statement.
A separate statement on its website says Dammons, a transgender rights activist, founded Baltimore Safe Haven in 2018. The statement says the group has previously expanded its services since its founding to provide housing services for members of the LGBTQ community facing homelessness and housing insecurity.
“The organization has also developed a wide range of programs and services focused on mental health support, physical health coordination, workforce development, legal support, advocacy, and community building.”
In July 2023, Safe Haven opened a D.C. office and drop-in center at 331 H St., N.E. that Dammons said would seek to provide services for the LGBTQ community, especially people in need, like the services provided in Baltimore.
Baltimore
5 more Salisbury students charged after man said he was lured to apartment attack
Suspects allegedly targeted victim on Grindr
By CODY BOTELER | Five more Salisbury University students have been charged in an alleged attack where a man said he was lured into an apartment and punched, kicked, and spat on because of his “sexual preferences,” the Salisbury Police Department said Thursday afternoon.
The latest charges come after seven students were arrested earlier in the week, in an incident law enforcement officials are investigating as a hate crime.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
BY TIM PRUDENTE | A Bethesda real estate investor nabbed Kevin Spacey’s waterfront Baltimore mansion at auction last month for a bargain, only now he has a problem.
Spacey, he said, has not given up the house.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Baltimore
Fired Baltimore health commissioner under criminal investigation
Ihuoma Emenuga probe concerns Chase Brexton clinical work
BY LEE O. SANDERLIN, ADAM WILLIS, ALISSA ZHU, and MEREDITH COHN | Mayor Brandon Scott fired Health Commissioner Dr. Ihuoma Emenuga on Monday evening after learning she is under criminal investigation. Her abrupt departure, just months into the job, leaves the Health Department once again without a leader as Baltimore struggles with rampant overdose deaths at a rate not seen before in a major American city.
The Baltimore Office of the Inspector General opened a probe into Emenuga’s work at a private health clinic while she was also serving as health commissioner, according to multiple people familiar with the matter but who were not authorized to speak publicly. The inspector general’s office made a criminal referral to the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor, which is now investigating.
Emenuga’s clinical work was done at Chase Brexton, a nonprofit health care center founded in 1978 as a volunteer-run gay health clinic in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. Today the clinic has locations throughout Maryland and sees about 40,000 patients a year with a focus on providing services to poor and underserved populations. A spokesperson for Chase Brexton did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday evening.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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