Analyzing the Impacts of Choice Neighborhoods Grants

A new study by the Urban Institute, for the use of the U.S. Department of Housing and urban Development (HUD), has examined the effects of the new approach to federal grant funding embodied by the Choice Neighborhoods program.

First an explanation of what makes the Choice Neighborhoods program different from previous federal funding programs according to a post written by study authors Rolf Pendall, Leah Hendey, and David Greenberg:

"Choice, which we studied in Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle, and which now is in place in 12 communities across the country, superseded and extends beyond HOPE VI, which sought to replace distressed public housing with mixed-income developments. Choice’s charge is to not just fix housing, but to improve entire neighborhoods. Such an aspiration is both quantitatively and qualitatively different."

The key conclusion of the report: public housing authorities cannot achieve neighborhood transformation working alone. "Instead, as our report shows, key city agencies, mayors, and city councils have to be committed to and engaged in the transformation," according to the authors. In more detail, the post explains how greater levels of success were achieved when city leadership was involved early on in determing the answers to three key questions:

• What's the plan and who made it?
• Who's in charge?
• How do we get the biggest bang for each federal buck?