Five Communities Selected for Choice Neighborhoods Initiative

Five communities have been selected to receive more than a combined $132 million to redevelop severely distressed public or assisted housing and revitalize surrounding neighborhoods under the federal Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.

Julián Castro, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced the awards during a press conference and tour of one of the selected neighborhood in St. Louis with Mayor Francis G. Slay.

The other four communities are in Boston; Camden, N.J.; Denver; and Louisville, Ky. There were selected from 34 applications.

The five awardees will replace 1,853 severely distressed public housing units with nearly 3,700 new mixed-income, mixed-use housing units as part of an overall effort to revitalize neighborhoods.

For every $1 in Choice Neighborhoods funding they receive, the awardees and their partners will leverage an additional $5 in public and private funding for their project proposals. Together, these five awardees are leveraging $636 million through other public/private sources and expect to stimulate another $3.3 billion indirectly to magnify their impact. The five award recipients are also past Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant recipients. After a two-year planning process, today’s award announcement provides funding to make each community’s vision a reality.

Choice Neighborhoods is part of the administration’s drive to reinvest in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty by revitalizing distressed federally supported housing into sustainable, mixed-income housing with access to transit, better schools, and jobs.

“These game-changing investments will breathe new life into distressed neighborhoods and offer real opportunities for the families who call these communities home,” Castro said. “What we do today will leverage private investment and bear fruit for generations of families looking for an opportunity to thrive in neighborhoods that are connected to the economic and social fabric of their communities.”