Baltimore is facing a missing middle housing crisis as the private market has largely produced luxury apartments while failing to build affordable homes for middle income residents. To address this, Maryland should issue state backed bonds so Baltimore City can directly build and rehabilitate missing middle housing, using future rental, sales, and property tax revenue to repay the debt. By focusing first on the city’s 15,000 vacant properties, this approach would increase housing supply, stabilize neighborhoods, raise property values, and help rebuild the middle class. Public ownership would allow the city to keep prices affordable, curb speculative investment, and reduce the risk of a growing foreclosure crisis driven by out of state investors. Investing directly in communities delivers greater long term returns in public health, neighborhood stability, and public safety than funneling resources to outside corporations.