The Choice Neighborhoods program is a centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. Conceived as a replacement of the two-decade HOPE VI program, the program focuses is on redeveloping both public and privately-owned affordable housing and has four goals as stipulated by the 2010 Notice of Funding (HUD, 2010):

1. Neighborhoods. Transforming neighborhoods with concentrated poverty and distressed housing into mixed-income neighborhoods with greater economic opportunity and better public amenities;
2. People. Resident-focused improvements in education achievements and economic self-sufficiency;
3. Housing. Providing current residents a choice between (redeveloped) affordable housing in the community as well as the opportunity to move to affordable housing in other neighborhood of opportunity; and
4. Use of concentration, leverage and coordination of various types of funding for community and metropolitan growth.

The program reflects the all-too-often binary goals of balancing people and placed-based policies, supporting locality-based initiatives while ensuring that outcomes for current residents are just as important. It actively encourages grantees to leverage the public funds with other public funds (notably the Promise Neighborhoods Grants and Byrne Justice Innovation Grants) as well as private and philanthropic sources.

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