Sunday, December 16, 2012 6:19 AM
Janet Ford
HUD Awards Over 100 Million to Revitalize Housing
HUD Awards Over 100 Million to Revitalize Housing
U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun
Donovan announced today that four communities will receive a combined $108.9
million to redevelop distressed housing and bring comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization to blighted areas.
HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods
Initiative (Choice) will help transform distressed communities in
Cincinnati, Ohio; San Antonio, Tex.; Seattle, Wash.; and Tampa, Fla. This
landmark initiative promotes a comprehensive approach to transforming areas of
concentrated poverty into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods. The
$108.9 million federal investment of Choice Neighborhoods has generated $393
million in private investments and commitments from local jurisdictions and
partners, a more than 300 percent leveraging.
“HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods
Initiative supports local visions for how to transform high-poverty, distressed
communities into neighborhoods of opportunity,” says Donovan. “We’re emphasizing
a comprehensive approach to revitalizing neighborhoods by considering the
totality of a community with regard to health, safety, education, jobs and
quality housing in mixed-income neighborhoods.”
The communities announced
today were selected from nine finalists HUD announced in August. Each of the
finalists completed a comprehensive local planning process and ready to move
forward with their plan to revitalize the housing and redevelop their target
neighborhoods. Building on the successes of HUD’s HOPE VI Program, Choice links
housing improvements with a wide variety of public services and neighborhood
improvements to create neighborhoods of opportunity.
The Choice
Neighborhoods Initiative is one of the signature programs of the White House
Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, which supports innovative and inclusive
strategies that bring public and private partners together to help break the
cycle of intergenerational poverty. It encourages collaboration between HUD and
the Departments of Education, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services to
support local solutions for sustainable, mixed-income neighborhoods with the
affordable housing, safe streets and good schools all families
need.
Congress approved the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the
passage of HUD’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget. Funding is provided through two
separate programs – Implementation Grants and Planning Grants. In 2011, HUD
awarded its first Choice Implementation grants for Chicago, Boston, New Orleans,
San Francisco and Seattle, a combined $122.27 million investment to bring
comprehensive neighborhood revitalization to blighted areas in these cities.
With this announcement, HUD has awarded a total of $231,250,000 in Choice
Implementation Grants in eight cities. See past Implementation grantees list here.
For more information, visit www.hud.gov.
Janet & Graham Ford
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