Peabody housing experts think struggling Nashville neighborhoods will get some relief from nearly $31 million in Recovery Act funding awarded to the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“This award is a wonderful opportunity for Nashville and a credit to the reputation of MDHA,” said Susan Saegert, professor of human and organizational development and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Community Studies. The Center for Community Studies assisted with the grant proposal through research and data analysis.
The grant—the only one given in Tennessee—will support efforts to stabilize weakened neighborhoods through purchasing and rehabilitating foreclosed and abandoned properties, redeveloping vacant properties as housing and establishing a financing mechanism for low- to middle-income homebuyers of foreclosed properties.
The award was given under HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program to spur economic development in hard-hit communities and create jobs. Nationally, nearly 60 grantees representing states, local governments and non-profit housing developers received $2 billion in competitive funding.