A private fund, assembled by the Greater Baltimore Committee and supplemented by regional arms of two large banks, will soon be made available to community development organizations revitalizing vacant homes throughout Baltimore, a first-of-its-kind gesture by the finance community to intervene in one of the city’s most entrenched problems.

Under a plan unveiled Sunday before an enthusiastic crowd at a West Baltimore church, The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Bank of America will take the lead on stitching a preliminary version of the fund together. Under the stewardship of the Greater Baltimore Committee, they intend to raise at least $100 million to spur more development in blighted neighborhoods — including in West Baltimore, where a depressed real estate market has long prevented much-needed redevelopment work from getting done.

But the commitment from the GBC and the banks came with a rebuke of city government and a call for increased speed and focus from the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development. On the pulpit Sunday, standing before a packed house, the Rev. Brent Brown of Greater Harvest Baptist Church handed Mayor Brandon Scott a green folder filled with more than 100 unfulfilled permit applications and other related needs and asked if he would see to them.

“It’s not a whole lot, not a whole lot at all,” Brown said, drawing laughs from the crowd. “We need action on this, that’s reality, and the truth is we need action on this now.”

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Brown referenced a recent Baltimore Banner data analysis that found that, since the city launched its new permits system in February, the number of permits issued has dipped to a record low since the city began publishing permit records on its public records database in 2015.

Scott, a Democrat who entered his second term in December, acknowledged that the rollout did not go as planned.

“We have built a bump in the road,” he said as community organizers from BUILD, the interfaith community organizing group that hosted the event, looked on. He pledged to fix the system, he said, “or folks will be looking for employment elsewhere in the city of Baltimore.”

A functioning permitting system is crucial to the city’s crusade against its vacant property supply, which it began to wage in earnest at the end of 2023. Permits cover the full life cycle of a housing project, from demolition and rehabilitation to occupancy and use.

A late permit can wreak havoc on a development project. Delays can be financially costly, and a bad experience can make a developer think twice about going through the process again.

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In a city committed to remediating at least 5,000 properties over the next five years, the stakes for a well-oiled machine have never been higher.

That’s because investors need to feel confident that their money will have the right outcome before they jump in, said Laura Gamble, regional president for PNC in Greater Maryland, who spoke at Sunday’s church event. She said the banks, along with the city and state, must agree on a “singular plan” that includes remediating whole blocks of the city at a time without displacing residents.

The private funds are meant to complement — and leverage — the hundreds of millions of dollars in government money already pledged to eradicate the city’s supply of vacant and abandoned properties. Scott, together with business leaders from the Greater Baltimore Committee and community organizers from BUILD, joined forces about 18 months ago with a plan to tackle the city’s vacant home epidemic with a $3 billion commitment over 15 years.

Since then, state leaders have signed on and committed to allocating $50 million a year for the cause. City funds, in the form of bonds paid for through a special tax district, are expected to hit the streets in September. And a vacant housing council, convened by government leaders, community organizers and civic and foundation heads, has started meeting regularly, drawing modest crowds of onlookers as it talks out problems and solutions.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much the pilot version of the fund would hold or when it would be made available. But speakers were clear about their commitment to the idea. On Sunday, religious leaders opened the event with an emphasis on etching a new “covenant” with Baltimore, drawing on religious themes from the recently celebrated holidays of Shavuot, Pentecost and Eid al-Adha.

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At one point, Mark Anthony Thomas, the GBC’s president and CEO, held up a collection plate, symbolizing the passing of the torch from the church community to the financial sector to lead the fundraising effort. BUILD will continue to help negotiate for the funds, along with state leaders from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s administration.

The GBC has partnered with Forsyth Street, a financial advisory and asset management firm, to conduct due diligence to determine the best approach for the fund, such as a low-cost loan, Thomas said after the event.

The banking community has slowly begun dipping its toes into Baltimore’s community revitalization efforts, starting with a $20 million commitment from JPMorgan Chase from 2022 to 2027. America’s largest bank has committed $200 million to Detroit over the last decade, acknowledging promising returns on the investment: more customers using its financial products.

Now, it appears, more financial institutions are using that logic in Baltimore.

“This investment is not charity,” Maryland Housing Secretary Jake Day said at Sunday’s event. “We all want to be clear: There is opportunity in this city, and it is a good investment.”