New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Learning from Innovative Community Efforts with the Prosperity Playbook Toolkit
Where people live impacts the quality of their lives and their economic opportunities. HUD Secretary Julián Castro created the Prosperity Playbook initiative to encourage policymakers and practitioners to exchange information, ideas, and strategies to address inequality and promote access to opportunity. Assistant Secretary for PD&R Katherine O'Regan discusses the recently launched Prosperity Playbook Toolkit, the online hub for this work, which contains a growing collection of case studies and a database of research and local solutions.

Research:
Lessons From the Second Generation of Jobs-Plus Programs
A recently released, HUD-sponsored report, "The Second Generation of Jobs-Plus Programs: Implementation Lessons from San Antonio and the Bronx," focuses on Jobs-Plus, an employment program designed to increase and sustain the earnings and employment levels of public housing residents. Jobs-Plus was first implemented as a demonstration program in six public housing developments between 1998 and 2003, and in 2011, was replicated in San Antonio, Texas, and the Bronx, New York.

In Practice:
The Burnham's Affordable Senior Housing Helps Revitalize Chicago's Woodlawn Neighborhood
Woodlawn Park is a multiphased, mixed-use, mixed-income redevelopment of a distressed Section 8 development in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. The Woodlawn Park revitalization has benefitted from a $30.5 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant. The most recently completed residential phase of the project, The Burnham at Woodlawn Park, opened in 2015 to provide onsite services for community residents and 65 affordable apartments for low-income seniors aged 62 years and older.

Trending:
Older Americans 2016: Key Indicators of Well-Being
In August 2016, the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics released Older Americans 2016: Key Indicators of Well-Being, the seventh in an ongoing series of reports that examine the well-being and condition of the U.S. population aged 65 and older. The report uses 41 indicators to provide a comprehensive portrait of the aging population. Several of the indicators, including HUD's Housing Problems indicator, provide insight into housing challenges and opportunities for older Americans.

Policy Update:
Neighborhoods and Violent Crime
Despite an overall decline in violent crime rates over the past 20 years in the U.S., significant disparities persist. Violent crime is concentrated in certain neighborhoods and localized "hot spots," with a damaging effect on resident health and the neighborhood fabric. A number of evidence-based strategies have proven effective in improving neighborhood safety and health, including problem-oriented policing of hot-spots, strong community organizations and leadership, and investments that increase inclusion, education, and access to jobs.

Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@huduser.gov.