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VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES $5.6 MILLION IN GRANTS TO 14 HISPANIC SERVING HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS TO REVITALIZE LOW INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS NEAR THEIR CAMPUSES

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HISPANIC-SERVING INSTITUTIONS ASSISTING COMMUNITIES PROGRAM -- FY 1999 AWARDEES

Washington, D.C. - Vice President Al Gore announced today $5.65 million in grants to fourteen Hispanic serving colleges and universities to help rehabilitate low-income neighborhoods near their campuses and bring new opportunities to students and working families living there.

"Helping these higher learning institutions forge partnerships with neighborhoods is another way that this Administration is investing in Latino communities in need," said Vice President Al Gore. "These grants will work to creating more livable communities for working families and students."

Under the Hispanic Serving Institutions Assisting Communities Program (HSIAC) eligible activities must: benefit primarily low- and moderate-income residents, help prevent or eliminate slums or blight, or meet an urgent community development need. Funded HSIAC projects will include: building a community learning center that will house, among other activities: creating a center for child care providers; building a youth center and offering social, cultural, and recreational programs there; turning a vacant lot into a gymnasium; creating a business assistance center for Hispanic small business owners; establishing a comprehensive culinary arts building in an abandoned school to provide career training to welfare-to-work individuals; and rehabilitating a building that will serve as a community-building information technology center.

"These grants will tare down barriers and create partnerships between colleges and surrounding neighborhoods, harnessing the talents of professors and students to benefit people and places in need," said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo.

The recipients of the Hispanic Service Institutions Assisting Communities Program (HSIAC) grants, administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are in the following cities: Tuscon, AZ; Gilroy, CA; Santa Ana, CA; Alamosa, CO; Miami, FL; Lawrence, MA; Paterson, NJ; Las Cruces, NM; Silver City, NM; Bronx, NY; San Juan, PR; San Antonio, TX; and Edinburg, TX.

The HSIAC grants are part of President Clinton's America Goes Back To School Initiative. This annual effort focuses on improving education across America and provides and special opportunity for communities to reaffirm their commitment to learning and education.

HSIAC applicants must be accredited, nonprofit 2 and 4 year institutions of higher learning that have at least 25 percent Hispanic full-time undergraduate enrollment, with at least 50 percent of these Hispanic students being low-income individuals. Approximately 200 HSI-designated schools are eligible to apply for the HUD program. A total of 36 colleges and universities applied for $14.4 million in HSIAC grants.

The grants announced today will go to:

Arizona	Pima County Community College	$388,960
California	Gavilan College	$399,953
	Santa Ana College	$400,000
Colorado	Adams State College	$342,310
Florida	Barry University	$399,999
	Florida International University	$400,000
Massachusetts	Northern Essex Community College	$400,000
New Jersey	Passaic County Community College	$400,000
New Mexico	New Mexico State University	$370,451
	Western New Mexico University	$344,878
New York	Bronx Community College	$400,000
Puerto Rico	University of Puerto Rico	$399,557
Texas	St. Philip's College	$397,867
	University of Texas-Pan American	$398,900

Four training sessions were held through the country-in San Juan, Miami, San Antonio, and Santa Ana, in 1999 during the application solicitation process, to inform potential applicants about this new program. Over 160 people, representing over 100 schools, attended the sessions.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009