20 Depressing Pictures Of Homeless Shantytowns Near Baltimore

When Social Security Administration software engineer Ben Marcin gets off work, he heads back out into the streets to photograph people who have fallen through America's safety net.

In the spring of 2011, Marcin stumbled on a phenomenon that was spreading across the city of Baltimore. Homeless people were leaving the streets and the shelters and setting up camp in the woods in and around the city.

Over the course of the year, Marcin stalked through the metropolitan area to photograph the makeshift homes of Baltimore's homeless. When he returned a year later, he found all of the homes gone.

"This was their last stand," Marcin told Business Insider in a recent interview. "Many of them were on their way out. If they had anywhere else to go, they'd be there."

While Marcin's project ended in 2011, homelessness and the makeshift camps have remained a chronic issue in the Baltimore area, leading to the establishment of The Journey Home, a 10-year program seeking to end the problem in Baltimore.

Marcin shared some photos of the homes with us here, but you can see the rest at his website. Marcin is running a new project on America's new urban high-rises at the Detroit Center of Contemporary Photography.