U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro traveled to Atlanta, Georgia and Kansas City, Missouri on September 28, 2015 to announce that five communities will receive a combined $150 million to redevelop severely distressed public housing and revitalize the surrounding neighborhood.
HUD is awarding Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Implementation Grants to city and housing authority partnerships in Atlanta, Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Sacramento, California; in order to begin the process of transforming, rehabilitating and preserving public housing.
As part of the Administration’s overall drive to reinvest in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, President Obama’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is intended to transform distressed public and assisted housing into sustainable, mixed-income housing with access to community assets and services and to support positive outcomes for families living in the development and in the community.
The five awardees have proposed to replace more than 1,650 distressed public housing units with more than 2,800 new mixed-income, mixed-use housing units as part of an overall effort to revitalize neighborhoods. For every $1 in Choice Neighborhoods funding they receive, the awardees and their partners will leverage an additional $9 in public and private funding for their project proposals.
“The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is responsible for transforming what were once vacant lots, crumbling parks and storefronts and distressed housing into vibrant communities,” said Castro. “It has become one of our nation’s most important tools in the fight to ensure that every family – no matter where they live – has the resources and strong foundation to succeed.”
HUD received 33 applications for the FY2014/15 Implementation Grants.
The following awardees will receive a combined total of nearly $150 million in award from the competition funds:
- Atlanta Housing Authority / City of Atlanta: $30,000,000
- Housing Authority of the City of Kansas City / City of Kansas City, Missouri: $30,000,000
- Memphis Housing Authority / City of Memphis, Tennessee: $29,750,000
- City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin / Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee: $30,000,000
- Housing Authority of the County of Sacramento / City of Sacramento, California: $30,000,000
HUD’s 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.