House Republicans will travel to Baltimore for their annual retreat in January, according to Republican sources familiar with the trip.

The GOP chose nearby Baltimore because it is a “working-class city— that has been hit hard by the economic downturn, sources said.

One aide noted that Baltimore is also just outside Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) Congressional district and that it is Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) hometown.

“We are not staying at a resort,— said the GOP leadership aide. “This is a working retreat where Members will be strategizing about how to take back the House. Baltimore has a 10.8 percent unemployment rate — it’s a city that has suffered from the Democrats’ failed agenda.—

It wasn’t immediately clear where Members will stay for the three-day event, which will be held Jan. 28-30‬.

Democrats announced earlier this month that they would scrap their annual retreat, which had been held the past five years at the Kingsmill Resort and Spa in Williamsburg, Va., and instead hold a jobs summit at Fort McNair in D.C.

Like Democrats, who also came under fire for decamping at a luxury getaway during a recession, Republicans received harsh criticism for holding their 2009 retreat at the posh Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va.

The Republican Study Committee’s annual retreat will take place in Charlottesville, Va., Jan. 14-16.