Choice Neighborhoods Evaluation

Reports

In September, 2013, HUD published an interim report summarizing the research team’s preliminary analysis of baseline data and implementation progress. That report is available here: Interim Report.

In November, 2015, HUD published a more comprehensive progress report that provides additional information about implementation and the baseline conditions experienced by residents of the neighborhood and target development. That report is available here: Baseline Conditions and Early Progress.

HUD has also funded several small research grants focused on aspects of the Choice initiative not covered by the primary evaluation. The University of California-Berkeley, the International City/County Management Association, Portland State University, and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services have worked on research related to Choice. The Portland State project looked at characteristics of Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant applicants; that report is available here: Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants.

In December 2024, HUD published a final report examining outcomes for the first five Choice Neighborhoods grantees and four additional grantees. Generally, the study found that grantees succeeded in redeveloping severely distressed public and assisted housing while adhering to a one-for-one replacement requirement and developed mixed-income housing. The study also found residents of some Choice Neighborhoods developments experienced reductions in neighborhood poverty and significant increases in employment and income, while other findings for residents were mixed. Grantees undertook a variety of critical community improvements in the neighborhood, though broader neighborhood impacts could not, with certainty, be attributed solely to Choice Neighborhoods. The report is available here: Choice Neighborhoods: An Evaluation of Outcomes and Neighborhood Impact.

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Information on the HOPE VI Program

In 1989, Congress established the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing to explore the problems of troubled public housing developments and to establish a plan to address those problems by the year 2000. Following several years of research and public hearings, the Commission's 1992 final report identified the key factors that defined severely distressed housing: extensive physical deterioration of the property; a considerable proportion of residents living below the poverty level; a high incidence of serious crime; and management problems as evidenced by a large number of vacancies, high unit turnover, and low-rent collection rates. The report estimated that 6 percent, or 86,000, of the nation's 1.4 million public housing units were severely distressed based on these factors.

The Commission members agreed that existing approaches for improving public housing were inadequate to address the needs of severely distressed developments. Instead, they proposed the creation of a new program to address comprehensively the social and physical problems of distressed public housing communities. Congress first provided funding for such a program through the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1993. Originally called the Urban Revitalization Demonstration Program, this public housing revitalization program soon became known by the acronym HOPE VI (Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere). Congressional appropriations have been provided for HOPE VI every year since 1993.

In 1998, Abt Associates Inc., under contract to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), began a 5-year evaluation of the HOPE VI program. The Interim Assessment of the HOPE VI Program was designed to study program outcomes by collecting and analyzing data about 15 HOPE VI sites once redevelopment was completed and units were reoccupied. This report presents the study findings.

Download the Interim Assessment of the HOPE VI Program Cross-Site Report

Historical information relating to both HOPE VI Demolition Grants FY 1996 – 2003 and HOPE VI Revitalization Grants FY 1995 – 2010 is available on the respective linked pages, which reside on our parent website, www.HUD.gov. The information is provided in chart form, and includes the Public Housing Authority (PHA) grant recipients, the development name to which the funding was to be applied, the fiscal year in which the grants were awarded, and the dollar amounts originally awarded for each project. This information is not intended to reflect a complete or final accounting of all HOPE VI activity, but is provided as guide for those seeking additional information.

Additional information on HOPE VI grants beyond data at the links listed above may be obtained by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request for the September 30, 2014 HOPE VI quarterly report, available on disk, at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/foia.