HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF SPARTANBURG AND CITY OF SPARTANBURG RECEIVE $300,000 TO SPUR NEXT GENERATION OF HOUSING, NEIGHBORHOOD TRANSFORMATION
17 entities nationwide receive grants to execute grassroots efforts to revitalize housing, communities

COLUMBIA - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that the Housing Authority of the City of Spartanburg and the City of Spartanburg will receive $300,000 to execute grassroots efforts to revitalize the public housing at Archibald Rutledge Hi-Rise and Oakview Apartments in Spartanburg Northside.

The Housing Authority of the City of Spartanburg as the lead grantee and the City of Spartanburg as a co-grantee are one of 17 entities from across the U.S. receiving a Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant today. The funding provides these communities the resources they need to craft comprehensive, community-driven plans to revitalize public or other HUD-assisted housing and transform distressed neighborhoods.

"This funding will enable the Housing Authority of the City of Spartanburg to take its initial discussions with local partners further to plan out strategies to build a stronger, more sustainable community that will address distressed housing, failing schools, rampant crime in this housing and community," said Ed Jennings, Jr., HUD Southeast Regional Administrator. "HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative represents the next generation in a movement toward revitalizing entire neighborhoods to improve the lives of the residents who live there."

HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative promotes 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 links housing improvements with necessary services for the people who live there - including schools, public transit and employment opportunities.

The awardees announced today were selected from among 72 applications. Successful applicants demonstrated their intent to plan for the transformation of neighborhoods by revitalizing severely distressed public and/or assisted housing while leveraging investments to create high-quality public schools, outstanding education and early learning programs, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs and well-functioning services. HUD focused on directing resources to address three core goals:

• Housing: Transform distressed public and assisted housing into energy efficient, mixed-income housing that is physically and financially viable over the long-term;

• People: Support positive outcomes for families who live in the target development(s) and the surrounding neighborhood, particularly outcomes related to residents' health, safety, employment, mobility, and education; and

• Neighborhood: Transform neighborhoods of poverty into viable, mixed-income neighborhoods with access to well-functioning services, high quality public schools and education programs, high quality early learning programs and services, public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs.

The grantees will use the funding to work with local stakeholders - public and/or assisted housing residents, community members, businesses, institutions and local government officials - to undertake a successful neighborhood transformation to create a "choice neighborhood." The awardees will use the funding to create a comprehensive Transformation Plan, or road map, to transforming distressed public and/or assisted housing within a distressed community.

Choice Neighborhoods is one of the signature programs of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oua/initiatives/neighborhood-revitalization), which supports innovative, holistic strategies that bring public and private partners together to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Choice Neighborhoods 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 FY2010 budget. Funding is provided through two separate programs - Implementation Grants and Planning Grants. With this announcement, HUD has awarded a total of $12.55 million in Planning Grants to 46 cities or counties.

Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grants are awarded to entities that have completed a comprehensive local planning process and are ready to move forward with their Transformation Plan to redevelop their target housing and neighborhoods. In August, HUD announced the nine finalists that will compete for approximately $110 million in 2012 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grants to transform public and other HUD-assisted housing in targeted neighborhoods. Teams recently completed site visits as part of the application review process to determine which of the finalists will receive Implementation grants.

Last year, HUD awarded its first CN 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.

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDnews, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's News Listserv.

FY2012 CHOICE NEIGHBORHOODS PLANNING GRANT AWARD INFORMATION

Spartanburg, SC

Choice Neighborhoods Lead Grantee: Housing Authority of the City of Spartanburg
Choice Neighborhoods Co-Grantee: City of Spartanburg
Target Public Housing Project: Archibald Rutledge Hi-Rise and Oakview Apartments
Target Neighborhood: Spartanburg Northside
Choice Neighborhoods Grant Amount: $300,000

Key Partners:
Spartanburg County Parks (Cleveland Park), the Mary Black Foundation, the Northside Planning Committee, the Butterfly Foundation, United Way of the Piedmont, local churches, and the South Carolina Association of Community Development.

Project Summary:
The City of Spartanburg's Northside was once a viable, thriving mixed-income community, with retail shops and community amenities. This area was once only blocks away from the train station, which served as a regional transportation hub. Spartanburg is still known today as the Hub-City. The downturn in the economy as well as the decline in textile manufacturing significantly impacted the viability of the Northside neighborhood. Today it is a distressed neighborhood, and although it is within reach of downtown amenities, it is far removed from these essential city assets. Deteriorated and dilapidated structural conditions, overcrowding, and nonconforming lot layouts characterize the Northside. Close proximity of homes to commercial structures along with a very high percentage of vacant lots contribute to the high crime rate and deterioration of the neighborhood.

The Northside neighborhood is a truly distressed neighborhood. The targeted housing developments include Archibald Rutledge, a 150-unit elderly public housing development built 41 years ago and in need of substantial renovations, and Oakview Apartments, a 105-unit Section 8 Mod Rehab development that is isolated, severely distressed, and out of character with the surrounding housing. In addition, unemployment in the neighborhood is 26.1 percent and the Spartanburg County School District 7, which serves the neighborhood, had a graduation rate of only 65.8 percent in a recent year.

Through a Choice Neighborhoods planning process, the applicants intend to achieve the following goals: (a) establishing the partnerships needed to carry out the transformation; (b) developing a financing plan and phasing model so that the replacement assisted housing units are integrated; (c) reconnecting the Northside to the downtown, physically and psychologically; (d) devising strategies to make available community and supportive services to residents throughout the neighborhood; (e) creating momentum for the private sector to revitalize and rebuild retail businesses for foot shopping, pharmacy, banking and other key retail services; and (f) establishing a strong education coalition that provides a high-quality education to children with services from pre-natal care through college and career.