HUD Awards DC Housing Authority a $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary and FHA Commissioner Carol Galante joined Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC Mayor Vincent Gray and DC Housing Authority Executive Director Adrianne Todman to announce that HUD awarded a $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant to the DC Housing Authority (DCHA). The District competed with 71 applicants to become one of 13 cities nationwide receiving this funding to begin grassroots efforts to revitalize the 288-unit Kenilworth Courts public housing development and voucher units and transform the Parkside-Kenilworth neighborhood.

"Across the country, local planners are serious about rolling up their sleeves to transform distressed neighborhoods into choice neighborhoods," said Commissioner Galante. "This community can now begin the comprehensive planning needed to turn the distressed public housing at Kenilworth Courts into a viable community that supports positive outcomes for families."

"I am elated, but not surprised, that Kenilworth Parkside has been chosen as one of the top 13 communities in the nation to receive a Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant," said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Mayor Gray explained the DCHA Choice planning process will build upon and strengthen the planning process of the DC Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, led by the Cesar Chavez Charter Schools, last year from the US Department of Education. "We now have a Choice, so we can keep our Promise," he quipped

"We are very excited about this new opportunity to help revitalize another DC neighborhood," said DCHA Executive Director Adrianne Todman. "We feel that our success in bringing life back to distressed communities through HUD's HOPE VI Program has prepared us for this new, innovative program." Over the last decade, DCHA has received seven HOPE VI grants, the second highest in the nation and leveraged this $181 million into $1.5 billion in community development for the District.

Building on nearly 20 years of success through HUD's HOPE VI Program, Choice Neighborhoods links housing improvements with a variety of public services including schools, public transit and employment opportunities. The program is a centerpiece of the Obama Administration's interagency Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, a collaboration between HUD and the Departments of Education, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services. With support from the White House Domestic Policy Council and Office of Urban Affairs, the partnership supports local solutions for sustainable, mixed-income neighborhoods with affordable housing and good schools.

SOURCE DC Housing Authority