U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson today awarded nearly $5 million to eleven communities to help create plans to redevelop severely distressed HUD assisted housing and revitalize neighborhoods. Funded through HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program, these grants will help local leaders craft comprehensive, homegrown plans to revitalize and transform these neighborhoods.
“Today’s grants will help to jump start the plans for immense positive change in eleven of our Nation’s often-neglected neighborhoods,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “I look forward to seeing their plans come to fruition as we help to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and set our neighbors back onto a path of self-sufficiency.”
“The Choice Neighborhoods Program goes far beyond providing new housing, it improves opportunities for residents and creates real and lasting change at the community level,” said Assistant Secretary Hunter Kurtz.
HUD is awarding Choice Neighborhoods Planning grants to the following communities:
| STATE | CITY | LEAD RECIPIENT | NEIGHBORHOOD/AREA | AMOUNT |
| OH | Akron | Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority | Summit Lake | $450,000 |
| OH | Cincinnati | Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority | West End | $410,000 |
| TX | Houston | Houston Housing Authority | Houston Third Ward | $450,000 |
| PA | Pittsburgh | Fineview Citizens Council Inc. | Northside Choice – Allegheny Dwellings | $450,000 |
| CA | Fresno | Housing Authority of the City of Fresno, CA | California Avenue Neighborhood – Southwest Fresno | $450,000 |
| AL | Montgomery | Housing Authority of the City of Montgomery | Centennial Hill | $450,000 |
| PA | Easton | Greater Easton Development Partnership | West Ward | $450,000 |
| NC | Fayetteville | City of Fayetteville | Murchison Road Corridor | $450,000 |
| OH | Toledo | Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority | McClinton Nunn-Junction | $450,000 |
| NJ | Atlantic City | Atlantic City Housing Authority and Urban Redevelopment | Stanley S. Holmes Village / Westside | $450,000 |
| GA | Atlanta | The Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia | Bowen Choice Neighborhood | $450,000 |
Read local summaries of the grants announced today.
HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program promotes a comprehensive approach to transforming neighborhoods struggling to address the interconnected challenges of distressed housing, inadequate schools, poor health, high crime, and historic disinvestment.
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.
Through Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants, local governments, housing authorities, residents, nonprofits, tribal authorities, private developers, school districts, police departments, and other civic organizations create a common vision and develop effective strategies to revitalize their neighborhood. The resulting Transformation Plan lays the foundation for revitalizing the distressed public and/or assisted housing units, transforming the surrounding neighborhood, and promoting opportunities for families.