On Monday, Governor Wes Moore released details of his newly introduced legislation, called the Enough Act, aimed at eliminating multi-generational poverty.
Moore, along with other state and local leaders like Sen. President Bill Ferguson and Mayor Brandon Scott, spoke from LIFE Church Ministries in Brooklyn — a neighborhood where one third of families live in poverty and which last year experienced Baltimore’s worst mass shooting.
“This community has gone unseen. This community has gone unheard. This community has gone underestimated,” said Moore.
If passed, the ENOUGH Act commits $15 million, which Moore has included in the state budget proposal, to community organizations in areas like Brooklyn to address issues like housing, employment or healthcare.
The idea is that communities identify the problems and come up with solutions rather than let the state decide the strategy for them, the governor explained.
“The only way for a community to be able to participate in ENOUGH is if the leadership comes from them. They have to be the one to submit the applications. They have to be the one to initiate the partnerships,” said Moore.
The governor mentioned past attempts to alleviate poverty that did not end in the desired results, specifically mentioning Sandtown-Winchester which has seen multiple investment attempts since the 1990’s, including after the 2015 in police custody death of Freddie Gray, and yet high rates of poverty remain.
The ENOUGH program, which stands for The Engaging Neighborhoods, Organizations, Unions, Governments and Households Grant Program, would live under the Governor’s Office for Children. The bill was introduced in the House last week with a list of bipartisan cosponsors.