City of Fayettville receives $20 million Hope VI grant

source: FayObserver.com

Staff writer Andrew Barksdale

City of Fayettville receives $20 million Hope VI grant

The grant will allow the city to replace two sprawling public housing complexes along Old Wilmington Road, and help leverage an additional $93 million in public and private money for a combined $113 million investment.

The project, which could take four years to complete, could be one of the largest and most significant redevelopment efforts in the city’s history.

“This is huge news for this community, not just for the the city,” Mayor Tony Chavonne said Thursday evening. “You are talking about people who have been left behind in that community for decades.”

Officials say the neighborhoods in downtown — bounded by Gillespie Street, East Russell Street and Eastern Boulevard — has one of the highest poverty and crime rates in the city.

“Old Wilmington Road was Fayetteville’s largest African-American ghetto prior to desegregation,” said the application for the grant filed by the city.

With the money, the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority will demolish the public housing complexes of Campbell Terrace and Delona Gardens, which are about 1,000 feet apart. Their barracks-style buildings comprise 249 units built in the 1940s and 1950s.

A mix of single-family homes, town houses and apartments — 747 units in all — will be built, mostly in that neighborhood but some elsewhere in the city on land that has yet to be identified. Some units will be sold on the open market.

In addition, a new community resource center and a day care center will go up in the neighborhood. Open space and a small business campus for defense contractors would also be developed as part of the plan.

The $20 million grant, known as Hope VI, will come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The announcement came shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday from the office of U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre. The Democrat from Lumberton said he had worked with Fayetteville officials on the application.

“I am thrilled that we have been able to work this out,” he said in an interview. “This is a great opportunity to create positive momentum that will permanently change the lives of many of the families of Fayetteville.”

A similar Hope VI application by the city was turned down a year ago. The city sought the grant a second time last fall, one of 29 applications from around the country. Only four or five are awarded each year.

Calvin Poole Jr., chairman of the housing authority, said one reason the agency won the grant was because it consistently performs well in federal audits. More HERE

HUD Awards $20 Million HOPE VI TO Washington, DC SE Project

By Sylvia Moreno

Washington Post Staff Writer

The D.C. Housing Authority has received a $20 million federal grant to redevelop the former Sheridan Terrace public housing project in Southeast Washington into a mix of 336 units of affordable and market-rate apartments and single-family houses.

Michael Kelly, the authority's executive director, said the award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is the equivalent of "winning an Oscar."

"It's HUD's recognition of excellence in technical achievement, city leadership and collaboration, D.C. Housing Authority capacity and the clarity of the vision of the neighbors of the Sheridan Terrace site," Kelly said.

The city won the grant on its third time applying for Hope VI funds for Sheridan Terrace. The authority bulldozed the once-crumbling and crime-ridden project in 1997, three years after the last tenant moved out of the 183-unit complex.

The HUD grant, announced this week by Kelly, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), will kick-start the development of the District's seventh Hope VI project.

The Housing Authority, whose partner in the project is William C. Smith & Co., will leverage the HUD grant with $87.7 million in public and private funds to develop the 9.8-acre Sheridan site -- bounded by Suitland Parkway and the District-Maryland line -- with 180 townhouses, 16 "manor homes" with four units per house and 100 apartments for seniors and families. A groundbreaking is expected in a year, and construction should be complete by 2011, officials said.

Residents who had to vacate the old Sheridan Terrace will have priority in returning to the new development, authority spokeswoman Dena Michaelson said, adding that 77 families have expressed interest in doing so.

With a redeveloped Sheridan Terrace, Washington will have seven Hope VI projects, second only to Chicago among U.S. cities. The federally funded Hope VI projects aim to restructure old public housing sites that traditionally clustered low-income families in high-density, high-rise buildings into lower-density, mixed-income developments. More HERE

There are four Hope VI developments in Ward 8, including Sheridan Terrace; two in Ward 6, including the Capper-Carrollsburg development adjacent to the new Washington Nationals stadium; and one in Ward 7. More HERE

City of Phoenix Receives Second HOPE VI Grant from HUD

March 24 , 2008 by Editor
Source EV Living

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the city of Phoenix $8.9 million for its second HOPE VI grant to revitalize the Krohn West Homes in the Central City South community.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said, “This funding not only gives cities the resources to build quality affordable housing in these communities, it also improves the quality of life of the residents who live in the public housing. I’m glad Phoenix will once again use HOPE VI funds to transform neighborhoods and lives.”

Krohn West is a 76-unit development that was built in 1961. The redevelopment will include 42 public housing units, 25 affordable rental units and 40 affordable homes for purchase. The plan also includes 16 market rate rental housing and 97 market rate homes for purchase.

“I am proud that HUD has awarded Phoenix a second HOPE VI grant,” said Mayor Phil Gordon. “We already see the positive results of the Matthew Henson HOPE VI Project and know that the Krohn West HOPE VI Project will be a positive addition to the community.”

The city of Phoenix was selected from a pool of 29 HOPE VI grant applications from housing authorities across the country. Other grants in this cycle were issued to housing authorities in Boston, Fayetteville, N.C., New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

“The Matthew Henson HOPE VI Project has successfully revitalized the Central City South community and I am pleased that HUD has awarded another HOPE VI Project in District 8 that will further improve the quality of life of our residents,” said District 8 Councilman Michael Johnson.

Relocation costs for residents will be paid as needed, and affected residents can relocate to other public housing or receive a Section 8 housing choice voucher to subsidize their rent in privately-owned properties. Relocated residents will have the option to return to the newly-constructed housing units and will be eligible for job training and other support services through the Community and Supportive Services component of the HOPE VI grant.

The city of Phoenix received its first HOPE VI grant in 2001 for $35 million to revitalize the Matthew Henson Homes located at Seventh Avenue and Buckeye Road. The 40-acre property was selected due to the age of the deteriorating units and its close proximity to downtown.

The Matthew Henson Homes is now “Henson Village,” a mixed-income residential community with 611 affordable housing units, which includes public housing, mid-level income tax credit and market rate units. The Matthew Henson HOPE VI Project is expected to be completed in December 2008.

A story of Hope

Redevelopment: A story of hope

By Michael N. Graff
Staff writer, Fayobserver.com

Longtime Walnut Terrace resident Mary Hinton takes clothes off the line. Her development missed out on a Hope VI grant. At right, Kristen Rahl, left, Micah Khater and Donna Omile warm up before soccer practice at Halifax Park in the Capitol Park neighborhood. The girls are on the Raleigh Charter School soccer team.

RALEIGH — When darkness settled in each Friday night, and the ghosts with guns began to gather outside, LaWanda Harris hid.

She put chairs inside a small closet. She moved the television just outside the closet door. And she sat with her children, watching whatever pleasant shows she could find.

Outside in the dark, there was only horror. Halifax Court wasn’t a place for real people. It was a place for the heartless, the soulless, and, as Harris remembers, “the hopeless.”

A decade later, on the same piece of land just north of downtown Raleigh, Harris leaves her blinds open all hours. Her children, now teenagers, run free in the evenings. Her sister now comes to her neighborhood to take nighttime walks.

Hope VI, the same federal grant for urban redevelopment awarded to Fayetteville earlier this month, changed everything here.

Flattened are the projects where the poor were clustered and the drug dealers were kings. Standing are the mixed-income neighborhoods where the grass is trimmed and the working-class feel safe.

About half of the residents remain in public housing. But a casual observer can’t tell which half. The houses look the same. For every person in the neighborhood like Harris — a single mother of three who requires public assistance — there’s a person like Charles Bolton — a retired college administrator who pays full rent.

The new crossbred neighborhood is named Capitol Park. Underneath it is a graveyard, a place once called Halifax Court, where the ghosts ran wild.

They’re only stories now. More HERE

HUD FY 2008 HOPE VI Revitalization Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA)

Revitalization Grants Notice of Funding Availability

The FY 2008 HOPE VI Revitalization Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) was published in the Federal Register on March 26, 2008 and announces approximately $97.6 million available for award. Eligible applicants are only public housing authorities (PHAs) that have severely distressed housing in their inventory and that are otherwise in conformance with the threshold requirements of the NOFA. The deadline for applications is June 20, 2008.


HUD’s Other Funds Available webpage Navigate to the “HOPE VI Revitalization Program.” There you will find the NOFA as well as the Department’s FY 2008 General Section. Click on the “Apply” link to take you to the Grants.gov website where you can download the application package and get started.

New! FY 2007 HOPE VI Revitalization Grant Awards,

Below is the list of FY 2007 HOPE VI Revitalization Grant Awards, totaling $88,855,000

		Boston, MA	Washington Beech	$20,000,000
		Fayetteville Metropolitan (HA)	NC	Delona Gardens and Campbell Terrace	$20,000,000
		(HA) of New Orleans	LA	C.J. Peete	$20,000,000
		Phoenix Housing Department	AZ	A.L. Krohn	$8,855,000
		District of Columbia (HA)	DC	Sheridan Terrace	$20,000,000