Five Cities Receive CHOICE NEIGHBORHOOD Implementation Grants

Five Cities Receive CHOICE NEIGHBORHOOD Implementation Grants

Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle will receive the first-ever Implementation Grants awarded under HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a new strategy and tool to support local leaders in transforming high-poverty, distressed neighborhoods into neighborhoods with healthy, affordable housing, safe streets, and access to quality educational opportunities. “This is a great day for these communities and the countless people who will benefit from the transformation this funding will bring to their neighborhoods,” said HUD Secretary Donovan, who announced the grants. “Choice Neighborhoods recognizes that we must link affordable housing with quality education, public transportation, good jobs, and safe streets. It is the next generation of neighborhood revitalization that not only transforms distressed housing, but heals entire communities.”

The story of how Choice Neighborhoods, with its focus on neighborhood revitalization, became one of the cornerstones of HUD’s urban strategy is told in the inaugural (Winter 2011) issue of Evidence Matters, a quarterly newsletter published by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research. The issue discusses the challenges that confront neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, examines research that illuminates the effects on residents of high poverty neighborhoods with little opportunity, and visits community planning and capacity building initiatives used by local governments and nonprofits to improve neighborhoods.

Consistent with the evidence-based objectives of Choice Neighborhoods described in Evidence Matters, the five grantees noted above have completed comprehensive local planning processes, and are now implementing plans to redevelop their neighborhoods. They have demonstrated their ability to revitalize severely distressed public and/or assisted housing, while bringing together the partnerships and resources to create high-quality public schools, outstanding education and early learning programs, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs and well-functioning services. Read a complete summary of each grant announced Sept 1.