Published February 01, 2019

NORFOLK, VA – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) and the City of Norfolk have been selected as a finalist for the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) Grant.  HUD received 32 grant applications and selected four applicants as finalists for individual grants of $30 million.

NRHA and the City of Norfolk applied for funding to support the transformation of the St. Paul’s Area in September 2018.  The St. Paul’s Area is more than 200 acres which contains three public housing communities and is subject to extensive flooding.  Norfolk’s transformation plan includes parallel efforts of both people and place.

“HUD’s decision validates the innovative work Norfolk is doing to create coastal community of the future.  We are strengthening our neighborhoods, we are safe.  Crime is at a 32-year low.  Our evolving waterfront city is among the most multi-modal and connected cities in the country and we are building on a growing and diverse economy,” said Norfolk Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander.   

The grant funding will redevelop the St. Paul’s Area from a community with the largest concentration of poverty in the region, to a mixed-use, mixed-income, sustainable neighborhood.   The plan seeks to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty by investing first in residents with supportive services around housing, employment, education and health and wellness programs.

Physically it creates a system of parks, open space and streets to manage stormwater and flooding while providing the neighborhood with recreational, cultural and educational amenities; connects the community to educational and cultural assets in the region and builds social capital along improved neighborhood streets; provides a wide range of housing types with the intention to invigorate community streets with shops, medical, cultural and social services, including an innovative “HUB” facility bringing together new and existing organizations in an accessible facility.

For more information on St. Paul’s Area contact Lori Crouch, Corporate Communications Director, City of Norfolk:  [email protected] or Jennifer Moore, Communications Director, Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority: [email protected].