HOPE VI / Economic Development

HOPE VI is a program created in 1993 by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that provides competitive grants to housing authorities to revitalize severely distressed public housing. From 1993-1999, HUD awarded $3.5 billion in HOPE VI grants to 131 projects across the country. These projects involve the demolition of more that 61,000 units of distressed public housing and the construction of more than 63,000 new public housing units, moderate and market rate income apartments and new homes.

The HOPE VI Program has five major objectives:

Improve public housing by demolishing severely distressed public housing projects, such as high-rises and barracks-style apartments, and replace them with townhouses or garden-style apartments that blend aesthetically into the surrounding community.
Reduce concentrations of poverty by encouraging a mix of incomes among public housing residents and by encouraging working families to move into housing that is part of revitalized communities.
Provide support services, such as education and training programs, childcare services, transportation and counseling to help public housing residents get and keep jobs.
Establish and enforce high standards of personal and community responsibility through explicit lease requirements.
Forge partnerships that involve public housing residents, state and local government officials, and the private sector, non-profit groups, and the community-at-large, in planning and implementing new communities.

The Housing Authority of the City of Winston-Salem received its $27.7 million HOPE VI grant for the Kimberly Park community in January of 1997. The HUD grant serves as "seed money" to leverage the additional $52 million in public and private funds that it is estimated will be required to complete the project. The additional funds will come from such sources as the City of Winston-Salem, Federal, and State low-income housing tax credits granted by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, private bank loans and other funding sources, both public and private. The closeout or completion date for this project is December 31, 2006.

Kimberly Park Terrace Community originally consisted of 556 units of public housing, a community building and a day-care center. Only 22 buildings (113 PHA units) remain and are scheduled for demolition by the end of September 2003. A 100-unit senior building, (Azalea Terrace) and 242 rental apartments (Aster Park) have replaced these outdated structures. A linear park, the focal point of the community, will feature a walking trail. Construction of 110 single family homes for purchase will complete the site. Glenn Oaks will mark the start of this phase with the first 28 single family detached homes. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2003.

In this year, 2003, the Housing Authority received another HOPE VI grant for the revitalization of a second public housing community-Happy Hill Gardens. The $20 million dollar HUD grant will again serve as seed money to leverage additional funds needed to complete the project.

Both of the Winston-Salem HOPE VI projects involve a physical and social revitalization of each respective community.

The rental apartments will be occupied by households with public housing incomes, as well as by moderate-income and market rate-income households. The new homes as well, will be marketed to buyers with a similar range of incomes. Lower-income buyers will receive special financing to make their home purchase more affordable. The project also provides an array of services to residents of each community designed to help them move from public assistance to economic self- sufficiency. These services include job training and placement, child care and transportation service, youth and senior activities, and homeownership training. These services are provided by more than twenty local agencies and organizations that have agreed to assist the community's residents. Residents are connected with these services by a team of professional case managers that provide individual counseling and referral services to each resident.

HOPE VI / Economic Development

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