City of St. Louis Honors and Highlights Public Improvements, Housing  Developers and More During Community Development Week

ST. LOUIS -- The City of St. Louis kicks off National Community Development Week by highlighting more than 30 organizations and City Departments that work to improve and enhance the lives of low-and moderate-income residents. The City of St. Louis is hosting more than 25 activities during the National Week, celebrated April 17 – April 22, 2017, including open houses, a bus tour* and an awards ceremony. Approximately 50 community organizations will be on hand at a Resource Fair at Dunn-Marquette Recreation Center on Monday, April 17 from 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

"The programs and organizations we fund aim to help improve lives, empower people to rebuild their neighborhoods, advance the City’s Sustainability Plan, and leverage add-on private investment" Mayor Francis Slay said. "The Community Development Block Grant and HOME dollars are vital to our communities to help ensure the delivery of more and better resources to some of our most vulnerable and challenged neighborhoods."

Bus tour participants will be some of the first to tour the new People’s Health Centers’ Project Hope Children and Adolescent Center, located at 5647 Delmar. A recipient of $3 million in Community Development Block Grant funding, the newly constructed facility will provide increased community access to children and adolescent behavioral health and primary healthcare.

Project Hope is among the projects and individuals being honored at the Community Development Week Awards Ceremony, to be held on Wednesday, April 19 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Jewel Box in Forest Park. Honorees include:

• Community Advocate of the Year (2) – Khatib Waheed and Herb & Judy Bentley.
• Youth Program of the Year – St. Louis ArtWorks
• Municipal Program of the Year – Expanded Recreation
• Public Improvement Project of the Year – People’s Health Centers’ Project Hope
• Executive Director of the Year – Will Jordan
• Housing Program of the Year – City’s Lead Program
• Housing Development of the Year – Village at Delmar
• Housing Developer of the Year – McCormack Baron Salazar
• Outstanding Service Award (2) – Mark Jefferies and Irvin Hamilton

Other CDA accomplishments to be highlighted this week include:

Choice Neighborhoods

Served as a key member of the team that was awarded a $30M Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant from HUD for the City’s Near Northside. CDA will serve as the neighborhood lead and the fiscal agent for the grant.

Housing Production

119 units completed in 2016 with $5,359,250 in CDA financing. Total development costs of $22,635,667.

Healthy Home Repair (HHR)

Successfully completed third year of citywide operation of HHR. Closed 311 loans worth $3,775,273 (a 12% increase from 2015; 40% increase from 2014).

Public Improvement Projects

Four public improvement projects completed, including the development of a new credit union, creation of a business development center, and park and street improvements. $2,137,000 in CDBG funds awarded. Total development costs of $5,850,486.

CDA‐Funded Program Accomplishments

Provided the following services to low‐and moderate‐income (LMI) City residents: health care services to 22,030 people; programs for 1,119 senior citizens; 182,513 meal distributions; and programs for 13,479 youth. 134 LMI residents received job training, 1,174 individuals received resident leadership training and 678 individuals received landlord training. Approximately $3.60 leveraged for every $1 in CDBG (over $55,000,000 in leverage for 2016).

Community Development Week

Second year of hosting a week highlighting the accomplishments of the City’s CDBG and HOME programs. The Week, which drew the attention of elected officials and key stakeholders, included a bus tour, awards ceremony, resource fair and day of service. Awarded the John A. Sasso National Community Development Week award for the effort.

Workshops and Training Opportunities

Conducted 11 workshops, offering 32 hours of training (210 attendees). Hosted HUD’s All‐Grantee meeting, with over 100 attendees. Sponsored an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Conference held on February 5th and 6th at St. Louis University School of Law, with over 150 people in attendance.

Invest Health

In conjunction with BJC, Washington University in St. Louis, the Missouri Foundation for Health and the University of Missouri in St. Louis, was awarded a $50,000 Invest Health grant. Invest Health is a new initiative that brings together diverse leaders from mid‐sized U.S. cities across the nation to develop new strategies for increasing and leveraging private and public investments to accelerate improvements in neighborhoods facing the biggest barriers to better health. The program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund.

NRSA Approvals

Received approval from HUD to designate the following areas/neighborhoods as Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Areas(NRSA): North NRSA (Baden, North Pointe, and Walnut Park West Neighborhoods); Northwest NRSA (Wells‐ Goodfellow, Hamilton Heights, Kingsway East and Kingsway West Neighborhoods); North Central NRSA (Greater Ville, Ville, parts of Jeff Vanderlou, Vandeventer, Lewis Place, and Fountain Park Neighborhoods); and Choice NRSA (Coincides with established Near Northside Choice Neighborhood Footprint, Old North St. Louis and St. Louis Place Neighborhoods). The designation will allow CDA to utilize CDBG funds more flexibly to address economic development and housing needs within the areas.

Grants Management System

Successfully implemented second phase of online grants management system; generated sub-recipient agreements within system resulting in increased efficiencies.

*Notice to Media

Members of the media are invited on a bus tour of recent CDBG and HOME projects and activities, including a visit to the new Project Hope Children and Adolescent Center, on Thursday, April 20 at 8:30 a.m. The tour will end after lunch at T-REX, a recipient of CDBG funding.

Please RSVP to CDA Director Alana Green at (314) 657-3835.

Related Resources

• 2018 Community Development Week
• CD Week 2017 Poster