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Office of Urban Affairs Blog

  • Building Neighborhoods of Opportunity

    Posted by Racquel Russell on January 10, 2012 at 5:49 PM EST

    Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $3.6 million in Choice Neighborhood grants to 13 communities across the country, which provides local leaders with flexible funds to transform high-poverty neighborhoods with distressed public housing into sustainable communities with mixed-income housing, safe streets, and economic opportunity.

    Choice Neighborhoods is one of the signature programs of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, which supports innovative, holistic strategies that bring the right partners together to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.  Millions of Americans currently live in neighborhoods of highly concentrated poverty where struggling schools, high unemployment rates, distressed housing, persistent and violent crime cause disproportionately negative outcomes for their residents. The interconnected challenges in high-poverty neighborhoods require interconnected solutions to address the compounding effects of the multiple barriers facing children and families who live in these neighborhoods—the Choice Neighborhood grants announced today do just that.

    The President’s approach to revitalizing neighborhoods of distress and providing economic opportunity focuses heavily on the link between housing and school improvements, recognizing that for neighborhoods to succeed they need high-quality educational opportunities. Just last month, the Department of Education announced the first round of Promise Neighborhood implementation grant winners and the second round of planning grant winners.  Promise Neighborhoods, modeled off of the Harlem Children’s Zone, is the sister program to Choice Neighborhoods and focuses on significantly improving the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in our most distressed communities, from cradle to career, and to transform those communities by creating great schools at the center.     

    A child’s zip code should never determine his or her life opportunities and through the work of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative’s flagship programs, Choice Neighborhoods and Promise Neighborhoods, we are providing the supports necessary to transform neighborhoods of distress into neighborhoods of opportunity. 

    Racquel Russell is a Special Assistant to the President for Mobility and Opportunity in the White House Domestic Policy Council.

     

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  • Improving Affordable Housing Delivery Across Federal Agencies

    Posted by Derek Douglas on December 30, 2011 at 1:38 PM EST

    Today, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development released the report “Federal Rental Alignment: Administrative Proposals” which lays out a broad vision for improving the delivery and operation of affordable housing across the country. The initiatives in this report – many of which are already being implemented - will streamline federal housing requirements to support more efficient delivery of affordable housing, and help state and federal agencies’ staff to better serve low-income families who rent their homes. The Administration's goal is to make government work better by reducing the unintended consequences associated with the reality of housing finance today – multiple overlapping public investments on a given rental property. 

    The report includes ten initiatives proposed by the Rental Policy Working Group that will more efficiently align rental programs across government agencies, including inspections, financial reporting, appraisals, energy efficiency standards, and fair housing compliance enforcement, among others. And every one of these improvements can be done without legislation or new funding, through a combination of education, outreach, issuing Agency guidance, and rule changes.

    This effort dates back to 2010 when the White House Domestic Policy Council created the interagency Rental Policy Working Group (RPWG) with the Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and the Treasury. The RPWG convened several conferences at the White House with local and state housing agencies and property owners and developers to discuss best practices in affordable housing delivery.
     
    As we begin implementation of these initiatives, we look forward to sharing our progress with you and hope you will keep in touch with our efforts through the Domestic Policy Council Urban Affairs blog  and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's site. 

    Derek Douglas is a Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council

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  • Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program

    Posted by Erika Poething on December 2, 2011 at 12:23 PM EST

    Ed. note: This blog is cross-posted from blog.hud.gov.

    This summer, the Obama Administration announced the launch of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) Initiative.  This new interagency pilot initiative is designed to spark economic growth in local communities while ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely and efficiently.  SC2 will break the federal government out of its traditional roles to partner with local governments more effectively.

    As part of this initiative, a new fellowship program will select, train, and place early to mid-career professionals to serve multi-year terms in the cities of Chester, PA; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and New Orleans, LA and assist them in their economic revitalization efforts.  Up to 30 fellows will be deployed to one of these six pilot cities and will be integral to creating partnerships among local community organizations, anchor institutions, businesses, foundations and other government agencies, with the goal of helping to leverage federal investments and increase economic impacts.

    Today HUD announced the selection of the German Marshall Fund (GMF) as the recipient of a $2.5 million award to manage the SC2 fellowship program.  The funding is donated by the Rockefeller Foundation. GMF will be responsible for implementing and administering the fellowship program by:

    •  Identifying, selecting and recruiting qualified candidates for the fellowship program;
    • Coordinating with local organizations in each pilot city;
    • Working with each pilot city to ensure that fellows are well integrated within their pilot city and working on strategic projects;
    • Developing orientation materials for fellows entering the program;
    • Developing or applying existing training curriculum that will equip fellows with the fundamental knowledge, tools and skills they would need to be successful in the program; and
    • Identifying additional training and mentoring opportunities fellows may require as they progress through the program.

    Once selected and assigned to cities, the SC2 Fellows will take on strategic responsibilities and be immersed in the core operations of the pilot city; engage in peer-to-peer learning opportunities and become active leaders in their pilot city; and be intensely engaged and committed to the redevelopment of the city so that they remain working in the city after the end of the program.

    Erica Poething is Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Policy Development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 
     

     

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  • Ending Homelessness in New Orleans

    Posted by Derek Douglas on November 29, 2011 at 12:46 PM EST

    Yesterday, the New Orleans Homeless Services Working Group, an official Mayoral Advisory Committee, unveiled the strategic 10-year plan to end homelessness in New Orleans.  The Obama Administration’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative played a key part in helping develop this cross-cutting plan.  A member of the SC2 team in New Orleans, the Department of Veterans Affairs, has partnered with the City to redevelop a portion of the downtown VA Hospital site into a Homeless Community Resource Center. This project is one of the cornerstones of the City's plan. To find out more about this announcement, please visit the City of New Orleans Web site.

    Derek Douglas is Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs.

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  • Pilot Project Aims to Streamline Government Policies for Affordable Housing Developers

    Posted by Derek Douglas on November 16, 2011 at 12:51 PM EST

    On November 7th, Wisconsin and Michigan signed agreements as part of an Administration pilot initiative that would reduce regulatory burden on developers of federally-subsidized affordable rental housing and better coordinate intergovernmental oversight. As part of the Obama Administration's commitment to better coordinated federal rental policy, U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Treasury are working with their housing finance agency counterparts at the state level in Wisconsin, Michigan, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon and Ohio to eliminate duplicative physical inspections of rental housing subsidized through more than one public funding source.   These agreements save taxpayers money, reduce unnecessary regulatory oversight, and ease the burden on low-income working families who must take time away from work to allow inspectors into their rental apartments.

    You can read more here: Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Affordable Housing Developers

    Derek Douglas is Special Assistant to the President on Urban Policy.

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  • Federal Rental Alignment

    Posted by Derek Douglas on July 27, 2011 at 11:58 AM EST

    This July 27th, the White House’s Domestic Policy Council (DPC) is announcing the launch of two Federal ‘alignment pilots’ in a total of ten states to better serve low-income families that rent, while reducing regulatory burden on affordable housing developers and owners. At a Rental Alignment Conference at the White House, Federal, State, local, and private-sector stakeholders will kick-off these pilots and will discuss progress being made on a number of other administrative solutions to better align and utilize affordable rental housing programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of the Treasury.  The administrative solutions that are being proposed for implementation can be found here. 

    For owners, developers, tenants, and local communities working to create and preserve affordable housing, federal funds often make up a significant share of a property’s financing structure. However, owners and developers can be burdened by overlapping administrative requirements associated with those federal affordable housing programs. Having affordable housing programs supported and administered separately by different Federal Departments has generally been good for the rental housing field, as different programs respond to different needs. However, over time, developers and owners of affordable housing have become increasingly reliant on multi-layered finance and subsidy structures. But these programs have not always been designed well to work with each other. 

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