On Wednesday August 25, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that $189 million was made available to help transform distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted housing projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods. Please join me over the jump as I describe the initiative in more detail.
On Wednesday August 25, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that $189 million was made available to help transform distressed neighborhoods and public and assisted housing projects into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods. Two programs appearing in Wednesday's Federal Register are the Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA), the federal application, for two revitalization initiatives: The Choice Neighborhoods FY 2010 and the HOPE VI FY 2010. Both applications can be accessed at www.grants.gov.
Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Sandra Henriquez stated that there has been remarkable success under the HOPE VI program over the last 17 years. This funding will help continue that work to transform public housing projects and improve outcomes for tens of thousands of public housing tenants. She went on to say, however, that even some of the best HOPE VI projects are "islands of hope still surrounded by a sea of need."
This is exactly why a more comprehensive approach to turning distressed neighborhoods around is needed. That is where the Choice Neighborhoods initiative is needed. The combination of HOPE VI funding with the first planning awards in the Choice Neighborhoods initiative will provide an investment of funds in strategies that will address the multiple challenges found in distressed neighborhoods – housing decay, crime, lack of educational prospects and economic connections - and unless all are addressed, will keep families and communities in severe distress.
"We are proud to work with HUD to ensure that there are great schools at the center of every Choice Neighborhood," said Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton of the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. "Our partnership is an important step to breaking down Federal agency silos and providing comprehensive tools to revitalize neighborhoods of concentrated poverty into neighborhoods of opportunity."
Choice Neighborhoods will go further than coordinating efforts with federal agancies. In addition to local public housing agencies, the initiative will involve local governments, non-profits, and for-profit developers in undertaking comprehensive local planning with residents and the communities.
Granted, the funds awarded for Choice Nighborhood are just a fraction of what is needed to really do the job, next fiscal years funding request for this program is more than doubled. In the 17 years that HOPE 6 has been around, over 6.1 Billion has been spent to transform 254 housing projects around the US. There is every reason to believe that investment into transforming entire neighborhoods will be the true impetus into positively affecting people's lives.