HUD AWARDS $30 MILLION TO TRANSFORM DISTRESSED HOUSING, COMMUNITY IN TAMPA
Funding to revitalize the public housing at Central Park Village

MIAMI - U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Southeast Regional Administrator Edward Jennings Jr., announced today that the Housing Authority of the City of Tampa will receive $30 million to redevelop distressed housing in Tampa and bring comprehensive revitalization to the Central Park/Ybor neighborhood.

HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (Choice) is a landmark initiative that promotes a comprehensive approach to transforming areas of concentrated poverty into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods. The $30 million federal investment in Tampa's Choice grant has generated $78 million in private investments and commitments from local jurisdictions and partners.

"This grant to Tampa is a recognition of the development of a comprehensive place based strategy, coordinated its local Congressional, Mayoral, Housing Authority and community leadership and will turn the page to a more promising future for the families who currently live in this housing and the surrounding community," said Jennings. "Choice Neighborhoods promises to open doors to more opportunity for future generations."

"HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative supports local visions for how to transform high-poverty, distressed communities into neighborhoods of opportunity," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "We're emphasizing a comprehensive approach to revitalizing neighborhoods by considering the totality of a community with regard to health, safety, education, jobs and quality housing in mixed-income neighborhoods."

"This investment is welcome news for Central Park and Ybor," said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. "In addition to more affordable housing, revitalizing the community as a whole will help foster long-term growth and success of the neighborhood."

In addition to Tampa, the Choice program will help transform distressed communities in Cincinnati, Ohio; San Antonio, Tex.; and Seattle, Wash., HUD Secretary Donovan announced today.

These communities were selected from nine finalists HUD announced in August. Each of the finalists completed a comprehensive local planning process and ready to move forward with their plan to revitalize the housing and redevelop their target neighborhoods. Building on the successes of HUD's HOPE VI Program, Choice links housing improvements with a wide variety of public services and neighborhood improvements to create neighborhoods of opportunity.

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is one of the signature programs of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oua/initiatives/neighborhood-revitalization), which supports innovative and inclusive strategies that bring public and private partners together to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. It encourages collaboration between HUD and the Departments of Education, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services to support local solutions for sustainable, mixed-income neighborhoods with the affordable housing, safe streets and good schools all families need.

Congress approved the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the passage of HUD's Fiscal Year 2010 budget. Funding is provided through two separate programs - Implementation Grants and Planning Grants. In 2011, HUD awarded its first Choice Implementation grants for Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle, a combined $122.27 million investment to bring comprehensive neighborhood revitalization to blighted areas in these cities. With this announcement, HUD has awarded a total of $231,250,000 in Choice Implementation Grants in eight cities. See past Implementation grantees list here.

Project Summary:

The Housing Authority of the City of Tampa's (THA) plan for transforming the Central Park/Ybor neighborhood centers on the redevelopment of the demolished Central Park public housing property. Central Park Village is now being redeveloped as the Encore mixed-income/mixed-use community which, when completed, will consist of 1,127 mixed-income housing units that include 827 rental and 300 homeownership units. These units will be spread among three mixed-income rental apartment buildings, a senior affordable housing building, a market rate condo building, and a mid-rise senior apartment building. The development will also include a 60,000 square foot mixed-use office retail building, hotel, 35,000 square foot grocery store, and a town square. The development will encompass twelve city blocks.

The Central Park/Ybor neighborhood lies in close proximity to downtown Tampa and the business district. Despite concentrated poverty and persistent disinvestment over a period of decades, the neighborhood has drawn several large employers, including GTE Federal Credit Union, KForce (one of the nation's largest temporary employment services) and Ikea. THA's Transformation Plan will build off of these anchor institutions to facilitate improved access to opportunity for residents. In particular, the Housing Authority has partnered with GTE Federal Credit Union, Hillsborough Community College and the Tampa Bay Workforce alliance to create a job training center for the community, which will be located in the neighborhood on GTE's campus. Hillsborough Community College instructors will staff the center and teach curriculum developed by GTE Federal Credit Union, Home Depot and other major Tampa-area employers.

In addition, the Encore development will be home to a host of new assets that will be open to the entire Central Park/Ybor community. This includes a new state-of-the-art health clinic which will provide free health care services to all neighborhood residents and a new early childhood education center run by the Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS). In 2009, HCPS received a multi-year Gates foundation grant, which it will use to provide focused training and support to improve and restructure all of the neighborhood schools. HCPS has also partnered with the University of South Florida to develop a 2-acre urban farm adjacent to the Encore site. The University will run its Gardening, Academic Improvement and Nutrition (G.A.I.N) initiative at the farm site, and the farm will also provide health education opportunities and fresh produce for the neighborhood residents. Hillsborough County will soon replace the local library with a 25,000 square foot facility that will offer a physical and programmatic connection to the adjacent Booker T. Washington Elementary school. THA will then partner with the new library to expand its literacy and mentoring programs. THA will also work with the city of Tampa to redevelop Peter Harvey Sr. Park, a 11-acre park adjacent to the Encore site. The redeveloped park will include cultural elements, an improved skate park and a community center.

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