HUD Choice Neighborhoods Grants Available

The Choice Neighborhoods program targets funding to improve severely distressed public and/or HUD-assisted multifamily housing that is located in distressed neighborhoods. Planning Grants support the development of comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plans which, when implemented, will be expected to achieve the following three core goals: 1) Housing: Replace distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood; 2) People: Improve educational outcomes and intergenerational mobility for youth and supports delivered directly to youth and their families; and 3) 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 core goals, communities must develop and implement a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy, or transformation plan. This transformation plan will become the guiding document for the revitalization of the public and/or assisted housing units, while simultaneously directing the transformation of the surrounding neighborhood and positive outcomes for families.

The FY2013 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) was issued on March 25, 2013. Eligible applicants are Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), local governments, nonprofits, tribal entities and for-profit developers that apply jointly with a public entity. 

Applications must propose to plan for the revitalization of a severely distressed public and/or HUD-assisted multifamily housing project located in a distressed neighborhood into a viable, mixed-income community. Individual grants may be for up to a maximum of $500,000. Because FY2013 full-year funding has not yet been appropriated for this program, the availability of any such funding for this program is contingent upon future Congressional action. As such, the NOFA does not specify the total amount of funding available for these grants. Applications are due May 28, 2013.

To view the grant application page, click here.

Contact: Ken Harris, kharris@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383, ext. 139