Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Act of 2016

Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Act of 2016

This bill authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make competitive grants to local governments, public housing agencies (PHAs), community development corporations, assisted housing owners, and other for-profit and nonprofit entities to implement transformational programs in eligible neighborhoods with a concentration of extreme poverty, severely distressed housing, and a potential for long-term viability, once certain key problems are addressed.

The programs shall include neighborhoods with proximity to educational institutions, medical centers, central business districts, major employers, effective transportation alternatives (including public transit, walking, and bicycling), and low poverty neighborhoods.

The bill requires grant applications to include a transformation plan that will demonstrate how a distressed neighborhood can be transformed into a mixed-income neighborhood with high-quality, safe, affordable housing, economic opportunities, access to jobs and public transportation, and effective education programs.

Such grants: (1) may not be used for construction or rehabilitation of a K-12 school building or an institution of higher education, and (2) are limited for certain non-housing activities and supportive services. HUD may waive these limitations.

The bill exempts from specified requirements of the United States Housing Act of 1937 the demolition and disposition of severely distressed public and assisted housing pursuant to a transformation plan.