On April 23, 2020, it was announced that one of the few remaining vestiges of public housing in Fort Worth, Texas—Cavile Place—will be redeveloped into almost one thousand mix-income townhouses and apartments. This is thanks to $35 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The HUD money is expected to catalyze almost $345 million in private investment in the Stop Six neighborhood of Fort Worth, which is currently littered with a plethora of vacant lots. That effort is being let by the local housing authority, Fort Worth Housing Solutions (FWHS).
Together with a private developer and various consultants FWHS has spent much of the previous year meeting with Stop Six and Cavile Place residents to discuss the area’s revitalization potential. The 300 units at the 1950s-era Cavile Place will be closed, and the entire project will be demolished to make room for mixed-income 990 townhomes and apartments all across Stop Six.
This was just one of four major investment announced by HUD that day. Four communities across the country will receive a combined $130 million to redevelop severely-distressed public housing and to revitalize surrounding neighborhoods. Provided through HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, these grants, and the more than $1.5 billion they will stimulate from other sources, will transform long-struggling neighborhoods and distressed HUD-assisted housing. Read more about these transformation plans.
HUD announced that the following communities will receive Choice Neighborhoods grants to implement their neighborhood transformation plans:
- Fort Worth Housing Solutions / City of Fort Worth, TX (Stop Six): $35,000,000
- Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles / City of Los Angeles, CA (Watts(: $35,000,000
- Housing Authority of the City of Winston-Salem / City of Winston-Salem, NC (North East Winston “Newside”): $30,000,000
- Philadelphia Housing Authority / City of Philadelphia, PA (Sharswood/Blumberg): $30,000,000
“Today’s Choice Neighborhoods awards will provide a transformational investment in these neighborhoods,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “Even during the Coronavirus outbreak, HUD is continuing to direct support to those communities that need it most.”
“The recipients of the Choice Neighborhoods awards have an opportunity to revitalize communities and create more safe and decent housing,” said Assistant Secretary Kurtz. “As the Office of Public and Indian Housing works with grantees to address the immediate COVID-19 situation, we are excited to work with grantees to plan for the future.”
HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation.
Local leaders, residents, and stakeholders, such as public housing authorities, cities, schools, police, business owners, nonprofits, and private developers, come together to create and implement a plan that revitalizes distressed HUD housing and addresses the challenges in the surrounding neighborhood.
The program helps communities transform neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public and/or assisted housing and catalyzing critical improvements in the neighborhood, including vacant property, housing, businesses, services and schools.
Choice Neighborhoods is focused on three core goals:
- Housing: Replace distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.
- People: Improve outcomes of households living in the target housing related to employment and income, health, and children’s education.
- Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families’ choices about their community.
The four awardees will create 3,641 new mixed-income units as part of an overall effort to revitalize neighborhoods. Based on information provided in the applications for funding, for every $1 in Choice Neighborhoods funds, the awardees will leverage an additional $12 in public and private financing for their project proposals. Together, these four communities self-report leveraging an initial $1.58 billion through other public/private sources to magnify their impact. Three of the awarded communities are also designated Opportunity Zones, attracting further federal investments.
Choice Neighborhoods builds on the successes of HUD’s HOPE VI Program, linking housing improvements with a wide variety of public services and neighborhood improvements to create neighborhoods of opportunity. Choice Neighborhoods is HUD’s signature place-based program, which supports innovative and inclusive strategies that bring public and private partners together to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Images courtesy of Fort Worth Housing Solutions.