What Happened?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced it will allocate a total of $3.2 million in Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants to six cities across the country.
Goal
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $3.2 million in Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants to:
- Flint, Michigan: $500,000
- Gary Indiana: $500,000
- Louisville, Kentucky: $425,000
- Mobile, Alabama: $832,500
- North Las Vegas, Nevada: $485,000
- Louis, Missouri: $500,000
The goal of the planning grants is to help local communities rebuild and redevelop district public or assisted housing. Award recipients can use the federal funding to craft locally-driven strategies for revitalizing distressed neighborhoods for long-term sustainability. The grant program promotes the transformation of struggling neighborhoods through solutions that address the interconnected challenges of inadequate:
- Housing
- Schools
- Public health
- Crime prevention
- Access to capital
The HUD initiative aims to empower community organizations, local governments and residents to take stock in their neighborhoods and create an environment for long-term social and economic success.
Choice Neighborhood
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhoods initiative provides assistance to communities looking to revitalize struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing. The grant program fuels the development of comprehensive approaches to neighborhood redevelopment and growth by engaging with:
- Public housing authorities
- Local governments
- Schools
- Police
- Business owners
- Nonprofits
- Private developers
The program is designed to spur critical improvements to local assets such as vacant properties, housing, social services and schools. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offers both planning grants to local organizations to develop comprehensive strategies, as well as implementation grants to ensure the tactics are put into action.
The program’s three core goals focus on:
- Housing: Replace distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality, mixed-income housing that meets the needs of the neighborhood.
- People: Improve educational outcomes and intergenerational mobility with services that support youth and their families.
- Neighborhood: Create an environment necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to ensure key amenities are accessible to residents such as safety, good schools and commercial activity.
To achieve these goals, communities must first create a Transformation Plan that will guide the revitalization projects for all housing units and the surrounding neighborhood. Once the plan is finalized, public and private agencies must work together to gather and leverage all necessary resources to support the financial sustainability and implementation of the Transformation Plan.
New Bern
In 2013, the New Bern Housing Authority in North Carolina received a $400,000 Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal funding was allocated toward a transformation of two of the city’s struggling neighborhoods, the Sun Journal reported.
The planning process for the revitalization efforts is nearing completion now that business leaders, local government officials and community members have come together to volunteer for focus groups to help finalize the Transformation Plan. The group of volunteers will discuss the strategies created – and introduce new ideas - for improve housing units and the surrounding neighborhoods where more than 4,000 residents live. Once a final proposal is in place, the city can submit the plan and apply for an Implementation Grant through the Choice Neighborhoods program, the Sun Journal reported.
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