HUD AND DOT AWARD $3 MILLION TO CREATE SUSTAINABLE LIVABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Unprecedented joint funding to foster integrated approach to housing, jobs and transportation

WASHINGTON - In an unprecedented collaboration between two federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today jointly awarded $3,000,000
to help stimulate a new generation of sustainable and livable communities in the District of Columbia, connect
housing, employment and economic development with transportation and other infrastructure improvements. The
joint HUD-DOT funding will support 62 local and regional partnerships seeking to create a more holistic and
integrated approach to connecting affordable housing, job opportunities and transportation corridors.

"Today two federal agencies come together to produce a win-win for local communities around the country," said
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "We're helping local and regional planners connect all the dots in their efforts to
make their communities more sustainable and livable. These grants will help communities to hit on all cylinders, producing more affordable housing near good jobs and commercial centers which will help to reduce our energy consumption and increase competitiveness."

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood said, "With the investments HUD and DOT are making today, we are strengthening neighborhoods by connecting housing with affordable and sustainable transportation choices. This is a win-win for people who live in these communities because they will have travel options to better serve them."

HUD is awarding $40 million in new Sustainable Community Challenge Grants to help support local planning designed
to integrate affordable housing, good jobs and public transportation. Meanwhile, DOT is awarding nearly $28 million in TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II Planning Grants to implement localized plans that ultimately lead to projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development (see attached funding chart).

The DC Department of Housing and Community Development will be awarded $3,000,000. This project will enhance inter-agency coordination and complement planned investment in the Congress Heights/Historic Anacostia/St. Elizabeths (CHASE) area by ensuring that the needs of Historic Anacostia are explicitly addressed as redevelopment enhances the livability of the neighborhood and the economic opportunities of its residents. The
grant will support affordable homeownership and low-cost rental options for lower-income and senior households
with an innovative homeownership sustainability fund and by expanding a range of services available to Historic Anacostia through DHCD’s existing Unified Fund. DHCD will develop an economic development implementation plan
to rehabilitate and promote the area’s historic commercial core and support the area’s aspiring entrepreneurs and residents seeking employment. Finally, DHCD will conduct a community engagement campaign to ensure that
residents lead the planning process to shape redevelopment.

Anticipated Project Benefits

• The project will increase the number of low- and moderate-income homeowners in the area, while providing
  them aid for rehabilitation.
• The number of affordable rental units will be increased through the subsidized rehabilitation of multi-family
  homes and the acquisition by DHCD of vacant and abandoned properties for use as rental housing.
• The grant will also lead to increased aid to local small businesses owners and increased availability of job
  training for residents.

Project Highlights

• STRENGTHEN LOCAL ECONOMIES: The grant will allow the DC DHCD to focus on the economic growth of
  the CHASE area by assisting local workers in attaining new job skills and local entrepreneurs establish their
  businesses.
• FOSTER COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION: The grant will enable DHCD shore up local homeownership and
  promote the rehabilitation of historic buildings and rental properties to increase the quality of the local
  housing stock.

Core Partners: National Community Reinvestment Coalition
Leverage: $5,000,000
Contact: Leila Finucane Edmonds, Director, Department of Housing Community Development, 202-442-7200, leila.edmonds@dc.gov

HUD's Sustainable Communities Challenge Grants will foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital and sustainable communities. These funds will be used by communities, large and small, to address local challenges to integrating transportation and housing. When these activities are done in conjunction with transportation projects, they can greatly increase the efficiency and access of local transportation while
encouraging mixed-use or transit-oriented development. Such efforts may include amending or updating local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes to support private sector investment in mixed-use development, affordable housing and the re-use of older buildings. Other local efforts may include retrofitting main streets to provide safer routes for children and seniors, or preserving affordable housing and local businesses near new transit stations.

TIGER II Planning Grants will prepare or design surface transportation projects that would be eligible for funding
under the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program. These projects include highways, bridges, transit, railways, ports or bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Rather than require applicants to navigate two separate grant application procedures that might be on different timelines and with different requirements, HUD and DOT joined their two new discretionary planning program to
create one point of entry to federal resources for local, innovative sustainable community planning projects.

The Community Challenge grants compliment the 45 Sustainable Communities Regional Grants announced last week
by HUD. The Challenge Grants help to support local communities seeking to integrate housing, transportation, and environmental strategies that will enhance local economic development, provide greater housing and transportation choices, and develop long-range visions for how they want their community to grow.

The new HUD-DOT program also builds on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative new interagency collaboration, launched by President Obama in June 2009, between the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Guided by six Livability Principles, the Partnership is designed to remove the traditional federal government silos that exist between departments and strategically target the agencies' transportation, land use, environmental, housing and community development resources to provide communities the resources they need to build more livable, sustainable communities.

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