The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has identified six applicants as finalists to compete for FY2017 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants to transform public and/or other HUD-assisted housing, as well as the surrounding neighborhood.  The entities below, selected from a pool of 20 applicants, will compete for individual grants of up to $30 million.  HUD anticipates announcing awards no later than July 2018.

Next Steps for Finalists:

In the coming weeks, a HUD team will visit the targeted housing and neighborhoods to meet with the applicants and partners to get a clear understanding of their individual Transformation Plans.  The HUD teams will ensure the applicants are committed and capable of implementing the neighborhood transformation as described in their application.  Therefore, being selected as a finalist is not an indication of a grant award.

Site visits are part of HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant application review process to determine which of the finalists are most competitive.  Opening the site visits to the public or revealing the location of the targeted housing or neighborhood at this stage is not permitted under the statute governing HUD’s process to award competitive grants.  Following the visits, HUD may request that applicants respond to technical clarification questions.

How Finalists Were Selected:

These finalists were ranked on how well their vision, capacity, and need addressed Choice Neighborhoods’ three core goals:

• Housing: Replace distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood;
• People: Improve educational outcomes and intergenerational mobility for youth with services and supports delivered to youth and their families; and
• Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families’ choices about their community.

Finalists were determined based upon information submitted to HUD by the application deadline of November 22, 2017.  HUD has conducted a two-tier process for reviewing FY2017 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation applications: (1) application screening and (2) preliminary rating and ranking.  In the application screening stages, HUD screened each application to determine that it met the NOFA’s key eligibility criteria, did not contain technical deficiencies, and met all threshold criteria (listed in Section III.C).  Applications that passed the application screening stage moved to the rating and ranking stage.  The preliminary rating and ranking tier involves two stages of rating review.  A Stage 1 rating review was conducted in which HUD evaluated the applications based on the Capacity and Need rating factors.  Applications that scored sufficient points in the Stage 1 rating review moved to Stage 2 rating review, where HUD evaluated applications based on the Strategy (Neighborhood, Housing, and People) and Soundness of Approach rating factors.  The applicants that were selected as finalists met all of the NOFA’s eligibility criteria, demonstrated strong capacity, and have developed a transformation that addresses the three core goals of Choice Neighborhoods.

Applications Not Selected for Funding:

HUD has notified the 14 applications that were not selected for funding.  Such applications were either (1) void or ineligible submissions, (2) did not meet threshold criteria in Section III.C of the NOFA, or (3) did not score sufficient points to be selected as a finalist.

If an application did not meet all threshold criteria, HUD has provided a detailed letter to the Lead Applicant and Co-Applicant fully describing the threshold criteria and failure(s).  As the application was not rated, this letter constitutes the debriefing.

For applications that were rated (either only in Stage 1 or both Stage 1 and 2), HUD has provided the applicants with a copy of the score earned for each rating factor that was reviewed.  HUD will offer debriefings for these applications as soon as the competition concludes, beginning no later than July 2018.