HUD Archives: News Releases

CUOMO ANNOUNCES $21.3 MILLION HOPE VI GRANT TO BALTIMORE, MARYLAND TO TRANSFORM PUBLIC HOUSING AND HELP RESIDENTS

BALTIMORE - As part of a program to transform public housing around the nation, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded the Housing Authority of Baltimore City a $21.3 million HOPE VI grant to make housing available for 116 families and to demolish 429 deteriorated public housing apartments, of which only 93 are occupied.

The funds are part of $571 million in highly competitive grants that HUD is awarding to 21 housing authorities this summer under the public housing transformation program known as HOPE VI. The grants will be used to provide public, affordable and market-rate housing for 9,311 families and to demolish 9,134 units of severely distressed public housing in 21 cities.

In Baltimore, the HUD grant will be used to revitalize the Broadway Homes public housing development. The grant also will help 40 Baltimore public housing residents find jobs and provide supportive services for 150 young people over the next three years.

The HUD grant will draw an estimated $70 million in other investment to the area.

Cuomo made the announcement today at a ribbon cutting at The Terraces, a completed HOPE VI project in Baltimore. He was joined by Senators Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, Congressmen Benjamin Cardin and Elijah Cummings, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, and former Congressman Parren Mitchell.

"We are transforming public housing projects with problems into new mixed-income communities with promise," Cuomo said. "We are making public housing a launching pad to opportunity, jobs and self-sufficiency - instead of a warehouse trapping people in poverty and long-term dependence."

Senator Sarbanes said: “The HOPE VI program continues to provide housing opportunities for the people of Baltimore. Quite simply, HOPE provides hope for those seeking to make their lives better, and I am pleased that Secretary Cuomo has come to Baltimore to make this significant announcement.”

Senator Mikulski said: “I created the HOPE VI program over six years ago when I put the program in the FY92 appropriations legislation for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and I have pushed HUD ever since to get the program up and running. Now years after its inception I am happy to see that HOPE VI is helping to rebuild Baltimore and other communities around the country.”

Congressman Cummings said: “Each day is a lifetime for anyone without a decent home - for those of our neighbors without hope. That is why HOPE VI is so important to Baltimore and the entire country. We are making an investment in our shared humanity and the souls of our people. The restoration of hope is an absolute good.”

Governor Parris Glendening said: “We are pleased that President Clinton and Secretary Cuomo have continued to provide the opportunity for Baltimore City to transform public housing into a place where people can lead better lives and find new opportunities.”

Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said: “We're thrilled that this program, and especially the work of Senator Barbara Mikulski, have lead to a national model for how to change peoples lives in ways that mean a better place to live, a better place to work and a better place to raise their children. Truly, we are building better communities.”

Mayor Kurt Schmoke said: "HOPE VI continues to be the backbone of public housing redevelopment in Baltimore City. As each antiquated development is torn down, communities of pride and promises are reborn in their place. Pleasant View Gardens was the first completed HOPE VI in the nation. The Terraces, where we are celebrating today, is also breaking new ground with its e-village and Congressman P.J. Mitchell Business Center. And the Broadway Homes HOPE VI revitalization, in cooperation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, will transform an unusable site into a glorious new public-private community for all of the community. Baltimore's Second Renaissance is well underway, and HOPE VI is a driving force, not only for public housing, but for the surrounding communities."

In Baltimore, the new housing being built with the HOPE VI grant will be made up of 84 public housing units, 20 affordable homes for purchase, and 12 units of market-rate rental housing.

The HUD grant will be used to create an 8,500-square-foot community center that will be the coordinating hub for community and supportive services, a mixed-use facility that will include a 15,000-square-foot state-of-the-art library and technology training center, 10,000 square feet of neighborhood retail space, a hotel, and a 1,600-space parking garage.

Residents will be linked to numerous community service providers, offering job readiness training, employment, education, and other resources. Community partners include the Johns Hopkins Institutions, Baltimore City's largest employer; Baltimore's Empowerment Zone; the City's public library and public schools; the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Maryland; Head Start; the Baltimore American Indian Center; and numerous grass-roots community organizations.

The Terraces, formerly known as Lexington Terrace, received a $22.7 million HOPE VI revitalization grant in 1995. The grant was used to build 203 public housing units, 100 affordable townhomes for purchase, and an 88-unit cooperative apartment building for senior citizens. In addition, the Terraces now includes the Parren J. Mitchell Business Center (the first HOPE VI economic development facility), an 11,000-square-foot Rite-Aid pharmacy (the first commercial retail development in a HOPE VI neighborhood), and a 15,000-square-foot community and recreation center.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City received a $49.7 million HOPE VI revitalization grant for Lafayette Courts in 1994, a $20 million HOPE VI revitalization grant for Hollander Ridge in 1996, a $31.3 million HOPE VI revitalization grant for Murphy Homes and Julian Gardens in 1997, a $21.5 million HOPE VI revitalization grant for Flag House Courts in 1998, a $2.5 million HOPE VI demolition only grant for Fairfield Homes in 1996, and a $2.3 million HOPE VI demolition only grant for Broadway in 1998.

The replacement housing units in the 21 cities around the nation receiving HOPE VI grants this year will be made up of 3,720 units of new public housing, 2,358 units of new privately owned affordable and market-rate rental housing, and 3,233 units that will be sold for homeownership by public housing residents and by market-rate buyers.

Some of the replacement housing units will be at the site of public housing being demolished, and some will be at other locations.

Nationally, HOPE VI funds will also be used to help about 3,400 public housing residents get jobs and become self-sufficient.

HUD's investment of $571 million in HOPE VI public housing transformation grants around the nation this year is expected to help generate a record $1.2 billion in additional investment in housing and jobs programs at public housing developments - including $854 million in private funds and $328 million in other government funds. In Baltimore, each HOPE VI dollar awarded today is expected to generate $3.31 in other investment.

HUD will pay temporary relocation costs for residents whose apartments are being demolished. Relocated residents in good standing will be given the first opportunity to move back to the newly constructed units at the site, or will be given rental assistance vouchers that will subsidize their rents in privately owned apartments if they choose not to return to public housing.

In addition, relocated residents receiving rental assistance vouchers will be given the same job training and other services that will be offered to people living in the replacement public housing, to help them get jobs and become self-sufficient.

All new units being built will conform to guidelines of HUD's Healthy Homes Initiative, which will ensure that homes incorporate safeguards to protect residents against hazards such as lead poisoning, fire, carbon monoxide and radon.

The 21 housing authorities receiving HOPE VI grants were selected in a competition involving 80 cities that submitted applications requesting a total of $1.8 billion in grants. Cities were selected based on a checklist of criteria measuring the effectiveness of their public housing revitalization plans.

Under the Clinton Administration, HUD is carrying out the most dramatic transformation of public housing since the public housing program was created in 1937 by President Franklin Roosevelt. The HOPE VI program was created in 1992 as a direct result of the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing report that found nearly 100,000 units of "severely distressed" public housing.

HUD has approved the demolition of 53,000 units of the worst public housing under the HOPE VI program, and has approved the creation of housing opportunities for 72,000 families. The new housing opportunities include 35,000 new public housing units, 25,000 other new units to achieve mixed-income housing, and 12,000 housing units subsidized by Section 8 rental assistance vouchers.

There are about 1.4 million units of public housing around the nation, where nearly 2.7 million people live. The median annual income of households in public housing is $9,257. A total of 49 percent of households are made up of families with children, another 32 percent house senior citizens, and 17 percent are home to people with disabilities.

HUD's HOPE VI assistance will be tailored to carry out plans developed by each grant recipient. Each recipient developed its own revitalization program under a HUD policy that gives local housing authorities great flexibility to come up with plans to meet their own special needs.

The HOPE VI program has five key objectives:

• Changing the physical shape of public housing by demolishing severely distressed projects - high-rises and barracks-style apartments - and replacing them with garden-style apartments or townhouses that become part of their surrounding communities.

• Reducing concentrations of poverty by encouraging a greater income mix among public housing residents and by encouraging working families to move into public housing and into new market-rate housing being built as part of the neighborhoods where public housing is located.

• Establishing support services - such as education and training programs, child care services, transportation services and counseling - to help public housing residents get and keep jobs.

• Establishing and enforcing high standards of personal and community responsibility by barring drug dealers and other criminals from moving into public housing and evicting those already there, under President Clinton's One Strike and You're Out policy and through other anti-crime programs as well.

• Forging broad-based partnerships to involve public housing residents, state and local government officials, the private sector, non-profit groups and the community at large in planning and implementing the new communities.