WASHINGTON, DC-Public housing projects in 17 cities will be the first recipients of planning grants under the Obama administration’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Friday. The program is a cornerstone of the administration’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, a collaboration among six Cabinet departments that is intended to spur private investment into impoverished neighborhoods, with the goal of transforming them into mixed-income areas.

The 17 grant recipients, which include municipal housing authorities as well as nonprofit organizations, will share a total of $4 million in Choice Neighborhoods planning grants. These grants are intended to enable each grantee to develop a “road map” for transforming public or assisted housing projects in specific neighborhoods, according to a HUD release. Six other communities have been selected as finalists to compete for approximately $61 million in CN implementation grants, said Melody Barnes, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, during a media briefing Friday.

“We can predict the life expectancies of children by the ZIP codes they live in,” Donovan said during Friday’s briefing. “That is a tragedy.” He added that while there’s no greater economic policy than one that “invests in our children’s future and helps America out-educate the world,” it’s not possible “if we leave a whole generation of children behind in our poorest neighborhoods.”

Individual planning grants range from $167,000 to $250,000. The grantees include: Albany, GA for its McIntosh Homes housing project; Atlanta for the University Homes project; Baltimore nonprofit Jubilee Baltimore for Pedestal Gardens; Buffalo, Commodore Perry Homes and Woodson Gardens; Jackson, TN, Allenton Heights; Jersey City, Montgomery Gardens; Kansas City, MO, Chouteau Courts; Memphis, Foote Homes; Philadelphia nonprofit Mt. Vernon Manor Inc.; Norfolk, VA, Tidewater Park Gardens; Norwalk, CT, Washington Village; Providence, RI, Manton Heights; Salisbury, NC, Civic Park Apartments; San Antonio, Wheatley Courts; Shreveport, LA, Jackson Heights and Galilee Majestic Arms; Tulsa, OK, Brightwaters Apartment Complex; and Wilmington, NC, Hillcrest.

HUD received 119 submissions for CN planning grants, and 42 submissions from communities seeking CN implementation grants. The six finalists for implementation grants have already gone through the planning to target specific neighborhoods; HUD says it will publish a second Notice of Funding Availability shortly to give the finalists the opportunity to assemble and submit more detailed applications for these grants.

The department plans to award these grants by the end of September. Congress approved funding for the CN program at $65 million with the passage of HUD’s budget for the 2010 fiscal year.

 

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Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.