To all the stakeholders in the Riverside community: I have the unfortunate task of sharing with you the latest on the HOPE VI front for our neighborhood. For the second time, an application for HOPE VI funding on behalf of Riverside has failed to be funded by HUD. As many of you who already know, and as many of you will now experience, devastation is a word that hardly begins to define the feelings all of us have at this latest set back. After a week of going through the grieving process, I am now ready to look at this situation for what it truly is, a setback.
Too much work has been done, and too many resources have been invested in this project to give up now. While the battle continues, the war is not lost. The Blueprint team will be meeting within the next week or so (we were supposed to meet today but I have been stricken with a summer cold and had to cancel the meeting), to lick our wounds and figure out what our next steps should be. I will also be speaking to the UD folks--our Blueprint Communities support system, for advice on what's next as well.
One thing that has already crossed my mind is that we may have to begin once again. The development of a new revitalization plan may be in order especially from the perspective of expanding the development team (which is different from the Blueprint team) to include not only WHA and Kingswood and a development partner, but might also include other governmental entities such as transportation, education and even labor so that HUD and/or other potential funders see this as more than just a housing project. Our two applications tried to make that point but apparently, we did not do a good enough job of making that piece clear.
The call will go out soon for stakeholder meetings and action team meetings and so on. I only ask that each of you dig down however deep you must go to stay with us so that the dream we have for the Riverside community can cease being that--and become the reality that all of us deserve.
Peace,
Eugene Rudder
Blueprint Team Leader
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1 comment:
Three years later and yes, the war still rages on. All is not lost we must keep HOPE alive.
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