HUD AWARDS COMMUNITIY ACTION PROJECT OF TULSA GRANT TO REVITALIZE EUGENE FIELDS AREA
City is one of 17 nationwide receiving new HUD Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants

OKLAHOMA CITY - The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP) is among 17 awardees nationwide of planning grants through the Department's new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. CAP, in conjunction with its partners, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Brightwaters Housing Partners L.P, and McCormack Baron Salazar, will use its two-year $250,000 planning grant to help transform the Eugene Field area, which includes the Brightwaters Apartment complex, into a new viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhood. Nationally, today's grants totaled $4 million.

HUD's new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CN) promotes a comprehensive approach to transforming distressed areas of concentrated poverty by linking housing improvements with a wider variety of public services including schools, public transit and employment opportunities.

"President Obama has said that there is no greater economic policy than one that invests in our children's future, but that's not possible if we leave a whole generation of children behind in our poorest neighborhoods," said HUD Regional Administrator C. Donald Babers. "Choice Neighborhoods is a new Administration program designed to transform not just housing in distressed areas, but the entire community."

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is a centerpiece of the Obama Administration's interagency Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative - a collaboration between the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Education, Justice, Treasury and Health and Human Services- to support the ability of local leaders from the public and private sectors and attract the private investment needed to transform distressed neighborhoods into sustainable, mixed-income neighborhoods with the affordable housing, safe streets and good schools every family needs.

The Eugene Field neighborhood is one of Tulsa's poorest and most isolated communities, with a violent crime rate more than twice that of the rest of the city. CAP and Brightwaters Housing Partners will focus their planning efforts around the redevelopment of the Brightwaters Apartment complex, a 200-unit HUD-assisted property, as a mixed-income development. CAP will also work to enhance the neighborhood's community and supportive services, create new job opportunities, and link the Eugene field neighborhood with the surrounding areas.

HUD received 119 applications for CN Planning Grants; 17 grants were awarded nationally. After completing their plans, grantees will be eligible to compete in future years for HUD Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants, which, if successful, could bring additional dollars to the grantees' communities to assist in their transformation efforts.

Congress approved the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the passage of HUD's FY 2010 budget, allowing HUD to use $65 million in funding to provide competitive grants to assist in the transformation, rehabilitation and preservation of public housing and privately owned HUD-assisted housing.

###

HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.