Department of Housing and Urban Development: Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant Program

The Choice Neighborhoods program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with severely distressed public and/or HUD- assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. Local leaders, residents, and other stakeholders, such as public housing authorities, cities, schools, police, business owners, nonprofits, and private developers, come together to create and implement a plan that revitalizes distressed HUD housing and addresses the challenges in the surrounding neighborhood. The program helps communities transform neighborhoods by redeveloping severely distressed public and/or HUD- assisted housing and catalyzing critical improvements in the neighborhood.

Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants support the implementation of comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plans that are expected to achieve the following three core goals:

* Housing: Replace severely distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood;
* People: Improve outcomes of households living in the target housing related to employment and income, health, and children’s education; and
* Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families’ choices about their community.

To achieve these goals, successful applicants have in place a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy, or “Transformation Plan.” This Transformation Plan is the guiding document for the revitalization of the public and/or assisted housing units, while simultaneously directing the transformation of the surrounding neighborhood and creating positive outcomes for families.

Experience shows that to successfully develop and implement the Transformation Plan, broad civic engagement is needed. Successful applicants need to work with public and private agencies, organizations (including philanthropic and civic organizations), banks and financial institutions, and individuals to gather and leverage the financial and human capital resources needed to support the sustainability of the plan. These efforts should build community support for and involvement in the development and implementation of the plan. Objectives and Metrics to Measure Long Term Success: Each Choice Neighborhoods grantee is expected to develop performance metrics based on these objectives. 1. Housing Objectives: Housing transformed with the assistance of Choice Neighborhoods should be: Well-managed and financially viable; mixed-Income; energy efficient, climate resistant, and sustainable; accessible, healthy, and free from discrimination.
2. People Objectives: Residents who live in the target and replacement housing before and after redevelopment benefit from: Effective education; income and employment opportunities; quality healthcare; and housing location, quality, and affordability.
3. Neighborhood Objectives: Through investments catalyzed by Choice Neighborhoods, the neighborhood enjoys improved: o Private and public investment in the neighborhood; amenities; effective public schools; and safety.

Amount: $218,000,000 is available to make up to five awards that range up to $50,000,000 for a project period of up to 6 years. Matching funds in the amount of at least five percent of the requested grant amount in cash or in-kind donations must be secured and used by the end of the grant term.

Note: At least $100,000,000 of the total funding must be awarded to applications in which a public housing authority is the lead- or co- applicant.

Eligibility: The lead applicant can be either a Public Housing Authority (PHA), local government, or tribal entity. A co-applicant can be a local government, PHA, tribal entity, or the owner of the target HUD-assisted housing (e.g. nonprofit or for-profit developer).

An eligible neighborhood for Choice Neighborhoods grant funds is a neighborhood with at least 20 percent of the residents estimated to be in poverty or have extremely low incomes based on the most recent data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Eligible Target Housing: Each application must focus on the revitalization of at least one severely distressed public and/or assisted housing project (see solicitation for definitions).

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=336601

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