HUD official visits Providence neighborhood targeted by LISC's Sustainable Communities program
23 Jan 2010 - Philip Marcelo | The Providence Journal
On Friday, HUD Deputy Secretary Ronald C. Sims toured the South Providence neighborhood of Olneyville, a Rhode Island LISC Sustainable Communities program site. Sims had a first-hand look at some of the neighborhood projects paid for with grants from HUD, the federal economic stimulus program and local community partnerships.
Excerpt:
PROVIDENCE — A federal housing official said Friday that the "sustainable and livable" community development taking shape in the distressed communities of Olneyville and South Providence are the type of projects the Department of Housing and Urban Development is encouraging as it works to help pull the nation out of recession.
Local housing officials, hoping for federal money to bolster their work, said HUD could use Olneyville as a model for how to rebuild other communities. " There is a whole lot more than [providing] a house for a family that is going on here," said Frank Shea, executive director of the Olneyville Housing Corporation, a nonprofit housing developer.
HUD's deputy secretary, Ronald C. Sims, who toured the area Friday, seemed to be in agreement. " We have to have sustainable and livable communities in every American metropolitan area," Sims said at a news briefing at the headquarters of Olneyville Housing. "Rhode Island has been doing it right and been doing it for a long time." Continued[+]...
> Read the full Providence Journal article
> Visit the Rhode Island LISC website
Article Type: News