Buffalo Awarded $250,000 to Transform Commodore Perry Homes and Other Local Neighborhoods

Pictured from left to right, Sheila Daniels, HUD Buffalo Acting PIH Director; Modesto Candelario, BMHA Assistant Executive Director; Mayor Byron Brown; Adolfo Carrión, HUD Regional Administrator; Dawn Sanders, BMHA Executive Director; Joan Spilman, HUD Buffalo Acting Field Office Director; and, Michael Seaman, Chair, Buffalo BMHA Board of Commissioners.

HUD Regional Administrator Adolfo Carrión joined Mayor Byron W. Brown and senior officials of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority to announce that Buffalo was among 17 cities to be awarded the first Planning Grant funding through the Department's new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. Buffalo will receive $250,000 to transform the Commodore Perry Housing neighborhood, the Woodsen Gardens neighborhood, and Kowal Apartments neighborhood into new viable and sustainable mixed-income communities. HUD's new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative will promote a comprehensive approach to transforming distressed areas of concentrated poverty into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods. Building on the successes of HUD's HOPE VI Program, Choice Neighborhoods will link housing improvements with a wider variety of public services including schools, public transit and employment opportunities. The Initiative is a centerpiece of the Obama Administration's interagency Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative - a collaboration among the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Education, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services to support the efforts of local leaders from the public and private sectors and attract private investment to help stimulate the local economy. There was a total of 119 cities competing for the grant.

Content Archived: December 3, 2013