I saw a similar set-up at St. Lo Drive and Harford Road over the last few weekends. There was a table nearby selling food. Looks like a number of someones found a variation of a food truck.

I'd start here: "https://homeless.baltimorecity.gov/get-help-now". There's also Catholic Charities of Maryland (yeah, yeah, I know): "https://cc-md.org/". When I went to the BCPS, there was at least one student counselor per school. A few decades have gone by, and I am somewhat concerned that your post here would seemingly imply that the ratio of counselors has gotten worse over the years. If your site or region has a counselor, talk to that person.

CPS has a 24-hour line: "https://dhs.maryland.gov/child-protective-services/" There's a local office link on the left side of the web page that you can use for each jurisdiction in the state.

Hackers don't have a global IT infrastructure to maintain, nor an administrative staff to market the service, provide customer service representatives, and manage resources on the back-end. Uber driver rates are cutthroat only on the ride share service.

As far as "calculating price": Passenger: I'm going to <destination>. How much? Driver: $X. Passenger: How about $Y? Etc. until a rate is agreed upon.

When my immediate family used hacks (pre-smartphone), it was typically to haul a month's worth of groceries from the local supermarket to home. The guys who were hacking stood around the supermarket exit, were regulars, and older. The rates charged were less than a regular taxi.

We never flagged down hacks on the street for general transportation, namely to avoid any negative issues. But the reason why others do it is because personal transport is unavailable (the riders don't have cars, and neither does family nor friends), and faster than taking the bus. Negotiations are done by "feel." (The driver and rider have their own ideas of what should be charged to get to a destination, so they talk a bit until a rate is agreed upon.) The rates were typically lower than taxis.

About 30% of people who live in the city don't have a car, according to the 2015 Census count. Most of that number are renters. It was purely a cash economy when I grew up. I imagine that this has changed a little depending on how technically savvy a driver and rider is, and whether the rider has a bank account (there are many people who don't).

That's an interesting route. I've been careful navigating (as in avoiding) Gay Street for the last two weeks because some rather large overground pipes at Broadway and Preston/Biddle have blocked the street's utility as a thoroughfare to downtown. It'd be better for any through traffic to stay on the 20th/Aisquith St./Harford Road path.