Choice Neighborhoods and Planning Program NOFO
The Choice Neighborhoods program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public and/or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. Local leaders, residents, and other stakeholders, such as public housing agencies, cities, schools, police, business owners, nonprofits, and private developers, come together to create and implement a plan that revitalizes distressed HUD housing and addresses the challenges in the surrounding neighborhood. The program helps communities transform neighborhoods by redeveloping severely distressed public and/or HUD-assisted housing and catalyzing critical improvements in the neighborhood, including vacant property, housing, businesses, services and schools. To this end, Choice Neighborhoods is focused on three core goals:
- 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;
- People: Improve outcomes of households living in the target housing related to employment and income, health, and children’s education; and
- 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.
To achieve these core goals, successful applicants must develop and implement a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy, or “Transformation Plan.” This Transformation Plan becomes the guiding document for the revitalization of the public and/or assisted housing units, while simultaneously directing the transformation of the surrounding neighborhood.
Preference Points: HUD encourages activities in Promise Zones, Opportunity Zones (OZ), or activities in collaboration with HBCUs. HUD may award two (2) points for qualified activities supporting either initiative. In no case will HUD award more than two preference points for these activities.
Funding of up to $5,000,000 is available through this NOFA. HUD anticipates awarding 10 Planning Grants not to exceed $450,000 each.
Funding Opportunity Number: FR-6400-N-38
Opportunity Title: Choice Neighborhood Planning NOFO
Competition ID: FR-6400-N-38
CFDA No: 14.892
OMB Approval Number: 2577-0269
Opening Date: July 14, 2020
Application Due Date: September 14, 2020
Agency Contact: Questions regarding specific program requirements for this NOFO should be directed to ChoiceNeighborhoods@hud.gov . Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339. Please note that HUD staff cannot assist applicants in preparing their applications