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Hope VI
The HOPE VI Program, introduced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1992, is designed to provide public housing authorities (PHAs) massive resources for the physical and social revitalization of failed public housing communities, deemed so severely distressed that treatment under the conventional modernization program would be ineffective. Beyond the obsolescence of the physical structures, typical characteristics of distress include poor siting or design, high crime rates, and residents who tend to score the lowest on indicators related to education, employment and income.
Historically, the design of public housing focused on building the maximum number of units for minimum cost, resulting in the current problems today associated with public housing nationwide - developments in such poor physical shape that they often fail to meet the minimum HUD-standard for decent, safe and sanitary housing, and serve as obstacles to any serious investment in the surrounding neighborhood. The traditional site designs incorporate elements that have the tendency to foster criminal activity, such as odd street patterns that dead end in the middle of a development and central spaces that are invisible from the street and are absent defensible space.
The HOPE VI Program addresses these historic failures by allowing housing authorities a fresh start with their most troubled communities. In most cases this means demolishing failed housing and replacing it with high quality structures absent the physical markers associated with public housing. The physical plans often call for reducing density, building single-family units that face the street, improving security through physical enhancements and connecting the development with the surrounding community.
The inherent power of the HOPE VI Program is found in the recognition that the effort to eliminate the physical distress is insufficient if it’s not joined with a plan to rebuild the lives of the residents living in those developments. As a requirement of the program, every HOPE VI plan includes a Community and Supportive Services Program (CSSP) designed to meet the unique needs of the individual community, developed after a comprehensive needs assessment of all families impacted by the redevelopment has been conducted.
CSS plans provide for economic development and self-sufficiency programs, such as job training and placement, GED classes, business development and homeownership opportunities. Additional support services include day care, transportation, violence prevention, after school programs for youth and medical services for elderly residents.
HOPE VI funding is awarded annually through a competitive grant process, with awards going to housing authorities that can best demonstrate a combination of need, capacity and the feasibility of the plan’s success. Successful applications are also those with strong public and private partnerships, demonstrated through the ability to leverage the grant award to raise additional funds, and those that incorporate mixed-income, mixed-finance developments, facilitate the creation or improvement of community resources such as schools, community and recreation centers, retail outlets and transportation and provide comprehensive community and support services.
Since the inception of the HOPE VI Program, HUD has provided over $4 billion to housing authorities in 90 cities nationwide
The DCHA HOPE VI Program
The HOPE VI Program has been remarkably successful in the District of Columbia, where DCHA is the 4th largest recipient of HOPE VI funding nationally, having received $140.9 million, and is recognized as a leader nationwide in the design and execution of innovative and successful HOPE VI projects. Each HOPE VI project grant award has been leveraged with additional public and private funding to bring the total infusion of financial resources for the revitalization of five HOPE VI sites to over $740 million.
DCHA has seized the opportunity afforded through HOPE VI funding to transform many of its worst developments into thriving communities, the successes of which have sparked the revitalization of surrounding neighborhoods through further public and private investment. The proven successes of innovative strategies put forth by DCHA have fostered partnerships with a wide range of individuals and organizations invested in the future of the Nation’s capital.
First and foremost is the leadership and commitment demonstrated by Mayor Anthony Williams in his shared goal of revitalization of affordable housing throughout the District of Columbia. Other partners include local resident organizations, the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the D.C. Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA), as well as local non-profit and community-based organizations.
For more information on the DCHA HOPE VI sites, please click on Arthur Capper/ Carrolsburg, Wheeler Creek, New East Capitol, the Townhomes on Capitol Hill and Henson Ridge.