[Durham INC] Durham's Southside Project Honored with National Award

[PublicAffairs]

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D02C1E.4F8B3AB0]


CITY OF DURHAM
Office of Public Affairs
101 City Hall Plaza
Durham, NC 27701

News Release


News Media Contact:
Amy Blalock
Sr. Public Affairs Specialist
(919) 560-4123 x 11253
(919) 475-7735 (cell)
Amy.Blalock at DurhamNC.gov<mailto:Amy.Blalock at DurhamNC.gov>
http://Facebook.com/CityofDurhamNC
http://Twitter.com/CityofDurhamNC
http://YouTube.com/CityofDurhamNC


For Immediate Release: January 23, 2015



Share!  Durham's Southside project honored with national community development award; http://bit.ly/1Cv9bfR


Durham's Southside Project Honored with National Community Development Award
Durham One of Only Seven Communities Recognized

DURHAM, N.C. - The City of Durham and its Southside Revitalization Project is now one of only seven communities nationally recognized for its innovative use of federal housing funds to transform this neighborhood using public investment as the catalyst.

Earlier today, the City's Community Development Department accepted the Audrey Nelson Award from the National Community Development Association (NCDA) for its outstanding use of federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds. The Audrey Nelson awards honor communities which exemplify outstanding achievement in service to neighborhoods and their lower-income residents. The City won this year's award for its effective use of CDBG and HOME funds to transform and revitalize the Southside neighborhood.


The entire Southside redevelopment area consists of 125 acres located between downtown Durham and North Carolina Central University. Guided by a community-based steering committee, a Southside Revitalization Plan was developed with 132 mixed-income rental development units called The Lofts at Southside, and 48 single-family ownership homes known as The Bungalows at Southside.



"It is heartening to learn that the City Council's investment into the revitalization of Southside is being recognized at a national level. Transformative results can already be seen taking place as families begin to move into The Lofts, and as the houses being built in Phase I of The Bungalows are being quickly sold," said Reginald J. Johnson, director of the City's Community Development Department. "We are already seeing private investment moving into areas of the Southside neighborhood as well. This is a good day for Durham and this award shows we are on the right track to bring new life and prosperity to this very important neighborhood."

The City's objective with this project, which originally held the highest concentration of vacant housing and lowest homeownership rate of any Durham neighborhood, is to stabilize this neighborhood and encourage long-term private investment through the creation of new, high-quality rental and homeownership units serving a broad range of incomes. The City has committed substantial CDBG and HOME funds to the project, which brought millions of dollars in private equity to investments in infrastructure improvements and new housing opportunities.



"This is a very complex project being carried out by the Community Development Department, and I congratulate the Community Development staff for their hard work and dedication as we work to wrap up the first project phases in Southside, and begin to implement the Phase II projects that will complete the initial comprehensive revitalization of this neighborhood," said Johnson.

The Audrey Nelson Award criteria included: local impact; innovation; collaboration; leveraging of additional funding including private-sector investment; and the replication potential for other communities to use Durham's successful neighborhood revitalization  model. Durham's winning submission spoke to the 'tipping point' model of multiple interrelated projects such as the mixed-income affordable and market-rate rental units at The Lofts, including the innovative live/work rental units for home-based businesses and entrepreneurs; the homeownership component of 48 mixed-income homes being built at The Bungalows; the substantial rehabilitation of formerly vacant houses on Piedmont Avenue into affordable rental housing; and the conversion of the former Whitted Junior High School into a mixed-use elderly rental housing and early childhood education site.

The award is named for Audrey Nelson, who was the first deputy executive secretary of the NCDA. Nelson grew up in an inner-city Chicago neighborhood and her intense commitment to her neighborhood, her local program efforts, and her drive to serve low-income people is honored through this national award. Other recipients honored this year with an Audrey Nelson Award are Collier County, Jacksonville, and Miami, Fla.; Fall River, Mass.; and Beaumont and Garland, Texas.


For more information on the Southside Revitalization Project, visit http://DurhamNC.gov/ich/cb/cdd/Pages/ssd_revit.aspx. For more information on the NCDA and the Audrey Nelson Award, visit http://www.ncdaonline.org.


About the Community Development Department
The City of Durham's Community Development Department is responsible for coordinating the City's housing resources and various housing assistance programs as well as promoting affordable housing by working with investors and community housing development organizations. The department administers the City's entitlement programs from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. Guided by the City's Strategic Plan, the department helps to ensure that the City has thriving, livable neighborhoods by enhancing housing quality and affordability for Durham residents. To learn more, visit http://DurhamNC.gov/ich/cb/cdd/Pages/Home.aspx.

###
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20150123/b521e936/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2951 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20150123/b521e936/attachment.jpg>