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U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge has awarded a number of Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) Grants totaling $370 million to eight communities throughout the country. These awards support communities that have undergone a comprehensive local planning process and are ready to implement their “Transformation Plan” to redevelop the neighborhood.
HUD Secretary Fudge made the announcement in Birmingham, Alabama, where she presented a CNI Grant of $50 million to the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and the City of Birmingham.
For decades, Birmingham’s Smithfield area was a thriving African-American community, replete with creative character. But several factors led to the community’s decline, beginning with mortgage redlining and racial zoning in the 1930s; the construction of Interstates 65 and 20 in the 1950s, which cut off the area from Birmingham’s Central Business District; and a lack of investment in schools and infrastructure. The Choice Neighborhood plan for neighborhood investment reflects the City of Birmingham and Housing Authority of the Birmingham District’s philosophy of ‘Putting People First’ with input from residents and community stakeholders.
“This investment represents HUD’s commitment to creating new housing for Birmingham residents and communities across the country,” said HUD Secretary Fudge. “When we envision the future of public housing investment, we think of programs like Choice Neighborhoods. These awards promote the innovative collaboration needed to tackle the affordable housing crisis. A community-driven, whole-of-government approach to neighborhood revitalization is what leads to impactful changes in the neighborhoods that need it the most.”
The CNI Grants will help revitalize and transform the distressed public and/or assisted housing and neighborhoods across the country, while also providing residents with services focused on income, health, and education.
The CNI Grants fund the creation of new mixed-income housing communities, improve economic development opportunities, and support wide-scale community revitalization efforts that focus on the three areas of “Housing, People, and Neighborhood.” The new grantees will join a committed group of 44 other Choice Neighborhoods sites nationwide that have collectively invested more than $6.3 billion into historically disinvested communities. The eight new awards have leveraged an additional $3 billion in public and private commitments to make their larger Transformation Plan a reality.
