The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the continuation of its Choice Neighborhoods Program with funding for the 2013 fiscal year. Local governments are eligible applicants for the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant Program, which has an estimated total funding of $109 million.

The Choice Neighborhoods Program focuses on strategies to address struggling neighborhoods with public or HUD-assisted housing at the local level. The program is unique in that it recognizes the “big picture” of neighborhoods and communities beyond just the physical dwellings. Accounting for resident’s needs – present and future – plays a key role in neighborhood development planning instead of just fixing what is broken. Sustainability and resiliency are considered as programs are implemented, not just to make communities better, but to ensure they stay better.

This grant opportunity expects applicants to focus on three core goals, consistent with Choice Neighborhood’s own values:

1. Housing: Replace distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.
2. People: Improve educational outcomes and intergenerational mobility for youth with services and supports delivered directly to youth and their families.
3. Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families’ choices about their community.

In order to achieve these goals, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would like to see a developed and implemented neighborhood revitalization strategy or Transformation Plan. The Transformation Plan has several required activities it must contain, including resident involvement in development of the plan, incorporation of energy efficient design into the rehabilitation or preservation of buildings in the targeted neighborhood and development of activities that ensure long-term viability of the neighborhood. A full list of required activities is available in the application package.

Full Transformation Plans will incorporate all of the required activities as well as consider the available eligible activities. The Choice Neighborhoods grant uses the Transformation Plans to further its own purposes – in essence, the applicant’s Transformation Plan should be a case study of what Choice Neighborhoods does in terms of carrying out transformational programs and initiatives.

Applications are due by September 10, 2013. Click here for more information and the application package.