U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro will travel to Atlanta Monday and is expected to announce the city has been awarded a federal grant to help address blight.
Castro will join U.S. Rep. John Lewis and Mayor Kasim Reed in Atlanta, before traveling to Kansas City, Mo., to “announce major funding awards that will revitalize distressed neighborhoods,” according to a press release issued by HUD on Friday.
Atlanta was named a finalist out of 33 applicants last month for a Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, an award that could be worth up to $30 million.
Reed has long said he wants to use the funds to help address blight in Atlanta’s Westside, particularly in the Vine City, Ashview Heights and Atlanta University Center communities.
Reed’s administration would not confirm Friday whether the city had won the grant. But when asked, Reed smiled and told reporters that such an award would be in addition to $30 million already pledged to the West Side as part of the Atlanta Falcons stadium project. The city of Atlanta and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation each committed $15 million toward those communities as part of the stadium deal.
“Just imagine doubling that, if we were to prevail,” Reed said Friday.
According to HUD, the grants are part of a White House “Ladders of Opportunity” initiative aimed at the middle class. The funds promote a “comprehensive approach to transforming neighborhoods struggling to address the interconnected challenges of distressed housing, inadequate schools, poor health, high crime, and lack of capital,” according to HUD.
Reed and the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a group consisting of area CEOs, philanthropic and academic leaders, are also behind the Westside Future Fund. The nonprofit, which will coordinate revitalization efforts, has raised about $1.5 million to date, with a goal of $4.5 million over the course of three years, according to ACP.
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