Slumlord Project

Wall Hunter's "Slumlord Project" is an innovative project in Baltimore, Maryland that used street art to expose and publicize vacant and dilapidated housing and the responsible parties for those conditions. The first installation of the proect ran in the summer of 2013.  The project used different street art forms to display art that attracted community interest and supported community identity. By incorporating QR codes next to the art pieces that link to specific Slumlord Watch website posts, the project was able to educate community members about the housing and safety code violations on the property and the owners responsible for the property’s decline. Additional to the QR codes, on the doors of the properties for all the insatllations in the project are text postings which detail the specific property violations. The intent of the radical actions were to create a ripple effect of publicity on issue of vacants, and begin public dialog about their ownership, as well as the role of street art as a tool for community building, beautification and political outcry. To dive deeper into the issue, the project joins forces with a film being made to stimulate and document conversation between community members, activists, and artists on the issue of Baltimore's overwhelming vacancy problem. The ultimate objective of the actions of the Slumlord Project is to increase community, government, and public pressure to remedy the problem of vacant property in Baltimore City while promoting well­done street art on vacant properties as a means of visual improvement and general public benefit.