New Updates on The Edge

Message from PD&R Leadership:
Israeli Delegation Visit
In the Leadership Message, PD&R’s director for international and philanthropic affairs Cynthia Campbell discusses the recent visit of delegates from the Israel Planning Administration. Delegates toured several projects in New York City, including projects highlighting redevelopment efforts in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In Hoboken, New Jersey, the group visited a park designed to increase the area’s resiliency to extreme weather events, such as Superstorm Sandy, which battered the region in 2012. In Washington, DC, HUD staff briefed the Israeli delegation on public housing in the United States, HUD’s resilience projects and research on innovative construction techniques, and U.S. building codes. The Israeli delegation, in turn, shared Israel’s strategies for addressing housing issues, including a comprehensive review of its public housing system.

Trending:
COVID-19 Diagnosis and Vaccination Uptake Among Adults Receiving Federal Housing Assistance
Approximately 10 million low-income individuals currently receive federal housing assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its associated job loss and economic turmoil, highlighted the importance of housing stability. Despite the potential benefits of receiving housing assistance during this chaotic time, HUD-assisted renters experience disproportionally high rates of COVID-19 risk factors. Between May 2021 and May 2022, approximately 70 percent of HUD-assisted adults reported having received at least one COVID-19 vaccination. HUD, together with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is working to increase access to COVID-19 prevention and treatment services, including testing and vaccines, among communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including HUD-assisted households.

In Practice:
Cedar Grove Becomes First Part of Billion-Dollar Redevelopment of Los Angeles Public Housing
Jordan Downs, a large, aging public housing complex in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, is being transformed into a mixed-use development with nearly 1,600 affordable and market-rate apartments. In June 2020, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles completed the first phase of this redevelopment known as Cedar Grove. At the cost of nearly $58 million, Cedar Grove has 115 units, ranging in size from one to five bedrooms, spread across 12 buildings. All the apartments serve residents who make less than 60 percent of the area median income, and more than half of the apartments are reserved for current residents of Jordan Downs. Cedar Grove and the larger Jordan Downs redevelopment are expected to help reutilize the surrounding Watts neighborhood, which has historically lacked significant investment.

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