Belmont Heights, Tampa HOPE VI Community

HUD Deputy Secretary Alphonso Jackson speaking at the grand opening of Belmont Heights

Duplex model in the family section of Belmont Heights

HUD Deputy Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Tampa Mayor Dick Greco celebrated the grand opening of the first phase of Belmont Heights on September 10, 2002. Deputy Secretary Jackson was the featured speaker at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for this $32.5 million Tampa HOPE VI Development.

In his remarks, Jackson said: "Today marks a new beginning for this East Tampa community. The City, the Tampa Housing Authority, its private partners and most importantly current and future residents should be extremely proud of all that has been accomplished."

When the funding was announced in October 1997, plans began to revitalize and renew the Tampa Housing Authority's public housing communities then known as College Hill Homes and Ponce de Leon Courts. Belmont Heights Estates, the new HOPE VI community, has already made an impact on the City of Tampa and particularly East Tampa. The new development will consist of eight hundred and sixty (860) mixed-income housing units on a 77-acre site. Three hundred and ninety-one units (391) will be designated as public housing, and will include a seventy- four unit (74) elderly-only village.

The HOPE VI program was created in 1993 as the result of a report by the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing, which found nearly 100,000 public housing units in the U.S. in need of revitalization.

Since 1993, HUD has awarded 165 grants to 98 cities. The program's $4.55 billion in awards has leveraged more than $8.4 billion in public and private funds.