HUD Announces $100 Million Urban Investment

Vice President Al Gore and Housing and Urban Development Secretary AndrewCuomo today announced that a new $10 million Community Empowerment initiative will generate upto $100 million to help revitalize some of the nation's most distressed urban neighborhoods.The new Community Empowerment Fund pilot is part of HUD's Economic Development Initiative(EDI), which enables communities to obtain long-term, low-interest, federally-guaranteed loans forup to 10 times the amount of their EDI grant for a wide range of economic and community developmentprojects. Since 1994, HUD has awarded $500 million in economic development grants and hascommitted more than $4 billion in Section 108 guaranteed loans. An estimated 300,000 jobs haveresulted from the investment.The pilot program is a tool available to Empowerment Zones and Enterprise communities, as well asother communities across the country. "Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities are basedon a very simple idea: Local communities know what works best for them but they need resources,"Vice President Gore said. "The goal of Empowerment Zones is not to strangle communities with tons ofnew red tape and government bureaucracies. The goal is to provide tax breaks and incentives to attractprivate investments and create jobs."