HUD Announces 2012 Choice Neighborhood Planning Grants

This week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the Notice of Funding Available (NOFA) for the 2012 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants. With $5 million in funding, these planning grants will fund the efforts of 17-20 communities to develop revitalization plans that will improve the well-being of residents, children and families by revitalizing distressed public housing and leveraging investments in community-based programs, including support services, education programs, and transportation. As a community-based initiative, the Choice Neighborhoods program ensures that current residents will benefit from these revitalization plans by preserving affordable housing and addressing the specific needs of the community, such as access to quality health services.

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is a major cornerstone of the Obama Administration's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) - a collaboration between the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Education, Treasury and Health and Human Services that strives to bridge public and private resources to transform distressed communities. Examples of other NRI programs include the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation program and Promise Neighborhoods.  Collaboration between these several federal agencies is sparking alignment between each of these NRI programs, allowing place-placed initiatives to be more readily implemented in communities.  According to Choice Planning NOFA, HUD will set aside four Choice Planning Grants for neighborhoods that have received a Promise Neighborhood Planning Grant.  Choice Planning applicants must have received the Planning Grant or have an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Promise Neighborhoods Planning recipient.

Eligible applicants for the 2012 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants include local governments, public housing authorities, nonprofits and for-profit developers that apply jointly with a public entity. Applications are due May 1, 2012. For more information about the 2012 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant, including more details about the application process, please click here.

The 2012 Choice Implementation Grants NOFA was released in January. In 2011, 13 communities received planning grants and five received implementation grants.