A Brief Look at the Early Implementation of Choice Neighborhoods

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, a signature program in the Obama Administration’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, aims to redevelop distressed assisted housing developments and improve their neighborhoods. This brief introduces the first five implementation sites—in Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle—and the plans for rebuilding them. Ranging from a few blocks to over two square miles, the sites vary greatly in their challenges, programs, and key actors. All five are making progress in this new phase of federal housing and community development and are addressing the challenge of coordination in their ambitious attempts to build mixed-income neighborhoods.