CUOMO ANNOUNCES $639,500 GRANT TO TACOMA, WASHINGTON TO TEAR DOWN DECAYED PUBLIC HOUSING

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced a $639,500 grant to Tacoma, WA to tear down the decayed Salishan public housing development.

The Housing Authority of the City of Tacoma will use the grant to demolish 106 dwelling units in the Salishan development. This development, built in 1944, consists of a total of 855 single and multi-family units.

The current 180 residents will be moved to other public housing developments or will be given rental assistance vouchers that will subsidize their rents in privately owned apartments. HUD will pay temporary relocation costs for the residents whose apartments are being demolished.

Tacoma is one of 27 jurisdictions receiving a HUD demolition grant for a total of $40.7 million. More than 6,700 units of public housing will be demolished around the nation.

"These developments represent the worst of the public housing stock in the United States," Cuomo said. "By tearing them down, we're making room for neighborhood revitalization."

HUD's demolition grants are designed to allow public housing authorities to best manage the assets in their property portfolio. The HUD funds will be used where the cost to refurbish -- or even to merely maintain -- the development is greater than the cost to build a new development. In many cases, the development is considered such an undesirable place to live that families in desperate need of housing will turn down the opportunity to live in it.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009