HUD Archives: News Releases

HUD TO RECRUIT REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS AS "COMMUNITY RENAISSANCE FELLOWS"

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's new Community Renaissance Fellows program will put at least 20 mid-career real estate professionals to work in the inner cities on public housing tranformation and neighborhood renewal.

The two-year, $3.6 million program will offer seasoned private sector professionals an opportunity to learn new skills as they work with public/private partnerships in improving public housing and bringing in new neighborhood investment and services.

Persons selected as fellows will be assigned to work for a specific public housing redevelopment effort and will receive an annual stipend of up to $50,000 while doing so. Once they have completed their fellowships, Fellows can then take the skills learned and apply them to other large scale neighborhood transformation projects.

HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said the program is part of the Clinton Administration's effort to encourage private sector involvement and expertise in renewing the cities. "HUD's wholesale neighborhood transformation projects have outpaced the skills needed to implement them," Cisneros said. "If these skills are to be developed, HUD must take an active role in nurturing them."

Because community building is such a new field, new education materials will be developed to instruct the Fellows on revitalization techniques. Yale University was selected by HUD to design and administer this educational program, consisting of one-week seminars, three times a year over the two year fellowship period. Yale has been awarded $657,000 to educate participants and to administer the program.

The Fellows will be identified and selected by a national Blue Ribbon Panel of private and public sector experts in community building. Fellows will be recruited this summer and placed at public housing sites by early fall.

Michael A. Stegman, HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, whose office is in charge of the program, said the Community Renaissance Fellows program "offers HUD and public housing authorities the chance to shape the outcome of public housing transformation through the creation of a new generation of urban revitalization professionals."

Kevin Marchman, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, whose office is providing funding, said the Renaissance Fellows program will bring important new talent and energy to HUD's effort to transform the nation's public housing.

For more information about the program, contact Jane Karadbil of HUD's Office of University Partnerships at (202) 708-1537.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009