Public announcement by HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros on July 14, 2009 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Henry Cisneros held a joint address at the National Press Club in order to announce the availability of $113 million in funding for HUD’s new competitive grant program called “Choice Neighborhoods”, which is intended as a replacement for HUD’s HOPE VI program.
The event also marked the release of Mr. Cisneros’ new book “From Despair to Hope” which chronicles the history of the HOPE VI program and seeks to evaluate its overall success. Over the course of its existence from 1992 to 2008, HOPE VI invested $6 billion in 240 public housing projects across the country, directly leveraging $11 billion of additional public and private urban investment totaling $17 billion. The book includes essays from ULI Nichols Prize Winners Peter Calthorpe and Richard D. Baron, whose work has repeatedly been acknowledged as being instrumental to the creation and development of the HOPE VI program.
Sec. Donovan started his address relaying that President Obama has ordered a full review and assessment of all federal programs across all federal agencies with respect to their impact on urban and metropolitan areas. No small undertaking! This review is to be conducted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the White House Office of Urban Affairs, and is expected to lay the groundwork for revamped urban policy agenda.
Sec. Donovan went on to frame the backdrop of social and environmental justice issues related to U.S. housing policies, referring to an uneven “geography of opportunity” in U.S. cities. He stated, “we must not penalize low-income families for the housing markets they live in” referring to the diverse housing markets in cities across the country.
“Choice Neighborhoods” is intended to extend the public-private development frameworks fostered by the Hope VI program beyond the sole objective of transforming public housing, thereby broadening its impact and extending its reach to catalyze community and neighborhood revitalization. “Reinvesting in public housing, which is surrounded by deteriorated private properties, has little opportunity to succeed,” he said.
Transforming public housing will remain a central objective of the program, but at $113 million in its first year, it does not measure up to the levels of HOPE VI funding in the late 1990s, which approached $700 million a year or the equivalent of about 15-20 annual project grants of around $35 million each. The U.S. Department of Education has recently announced a companion grant program called “Promise Neighborhoods”, which is modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone, which seeks to coordinate a broad range of social and educational activities all within one individual neighborhood.
Donovan echoed Obama’s recent directive to have HUD, US-DOT, EPA and US-DOE work in a more collaborative manner around the six “livability principles” laid out by agency directors at the beginning of June in testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Donovan concluded by stating his belief that housing in the United States remains the “essential source of stability” for all citizens and that “the hopes and dreams of all Americans should not be limited by where one lives.”
HUD’s “Choice Neighborhoods” press release:
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr09-119.cfm&CFID=15174762&CFTOKEN=47616137
Sec. Donovan’s “Choice Neighborhoods” remarks:
http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/2009-07-14.cfm
President Obama’s announcement of the federal policy review: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/A-New-Vision-for-Urban-and-Metropolitan-Policy/
HUD’s “Livability Principles” press release: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr2009-06-16.cfm
