Sacramento, Calif. | The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced that Sacramento is one of nine finalists to compete for 2014-2015 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants to transform public housing, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. The finalists were selected from a pool of 33 applicants and will compete for individual grants of up to $30 million. Other than Camden, New Jersey, Sacramento is the only entity with a federal Promise Zone designation.
“Sacramento is on a roll. Today’s announcement that we are a finalist for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is another example of the federal government recognizing Sacramento is a city on the move,” said Mayor Kevin Johnson. “A CNI implementation grant would be a huge complement to our newly designated Promise Zone and our Downtown Housing Initiative. In this 3.0 era, with the growing momentum of economic development downtown, Sacramento is committed to improving communities in need of revitalization through innovation, infrastructure and inclusion.”
The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Initiative helps communities transform neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public housing and by leveraging and investing in well-functioning services, high quality public schools and education programs, high quality early learning programs and services, crime prevention strategies, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs.
“We’re extremely proud that the hard work and dedication of our partners, stakeholders, residents and staff have brought us closer to our goal to be awarded a CNI implementation grant,” said La Shelle Dozier, Executive Director of Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency which is leading the CNI in Sacramento. “This three-year process has been an extremely important exercise in the value of strong partnerships and working together at the grass roots level to identify where and how we can improve the quality of life in our communities and to leverage the resources needed to make it happen.”
Sacramento completed a comprehensive local planning process and developed a Neighborhood Transformation Plan to redevelop the Twin Rivers public housing community. The next step will be a visit from HUD teams in the next few weeks to discuss the NTP and to see the community firsthand as described in the application.
If Sacramento is successful in receiving an award, the grant will provide seed money for what will eventually be the investment of over $100 million in public and private funds into the Twin Rivers Transit Oriented Development area, resulting in 800 newly constructed mixed-income residential units, including public housing, workforce housing, and market rate housing. Just as important, the grant will provide additional resources to the many partner organizations to provide enhanced services to Twin Rivers public housing residents to improve outcomes in health, education and employment.
Today’s announcement follows the designation of Sacramento as a federal Promise Zone last April which provides additional federal resources to high-poverty communities throughout the country. SHRA’s Promise Zone application was one of only eight selected nation-wide out of a pool of over 120 applications and provides additional consideration to grant applications, including Choice Neighborhoods.
