Expanded the HOPE VI program, whose goal to revitalize severely distressed public housing, by providing services in a more holistic manner to help transform housing, people and the neighborhood.
Where the hope program only focused on revitalizing public housing units in distress, the Choice Neighborhoods Initative (CNI) focused on revitalizing the neighborhood where the housing was located as a whole. CNI funding is provided through a grant process where local government officials, in conjunction with other stakeholders, can apply for either planning or implementation funding.
CNI’s three main goals: 1
Housing:
Revitalize distressed public and HUD-assisted private housing into energy efficient, financially-viable mixed-income housing.
People:
Support holistic approaches to improve health, safety, employment, mobility, and education outcomes for residents in both the public housing complexes and the surrounding neighborhood.
Neighborhood:
Invest in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty by building communities onto thriving, mixed-income neighborhoods that have access to quality services such as high quality schools and educational programs, public transportation, and improved access to jobs.
Key requirements for grants:1
One-for-one replacement of all public and private HUD-assisted units, with replacement units being built in the target neighborhood unless units are built in an area with more economic opportunities and can be either public housing or project-based voucher units.
Housing Choice Vouchers, which are tenant-based, may be used to replace up to 50% of the public housing units when the vacancy rate for units affordable to low income households was greater than 7.3% in 2000 and
greater than 8.7% in 2005-2009; at least 50% of the vouchers currently in use are in neighborhoods with a poverty rate below 20%; and, a minimum of 80% of the households issued vouchers successfully leased units within 120 days.Each resident who wishes to return to the improved development may do so.
Existing residents must have access to the benefits of the improved neighborhood, with input from residents being taken through all stages of the re-development process.
Between FY10 and FY13, HUD awarded 56 CNI planning grants and 13 implementation grants. In 2013, The CNI program was tied with the new Promise Neighborhoods Initiative which seeks to build partnerships with non-government stakeholders to invest in solutions to build opportunities and . Several CNI grants are still awarded every year as of FY2019. 2
For the full text of the bill, click here.
Endnotes