April 16, 2021

HUD: $1.5 Million Awarded to Improve the Main Street in Three Communities

Kit Carson, Colorado, El Cerrito, California, and Stayton, Oregon to each receive a $500,000 grant to expand redevelopment efforts

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $1.5 million to help build affordable housing in Colorado, California, and Oregon. Kit Carson, Colorado will receive a $500,000 grant to redevelop two sites, the City of El Cerrito, California will receive a $500,000 grant to build affordable, residential units in the city’s commercial district, and the City of Stayton, Oregon will receive a $500,000 grant to rehabilitate two buildings. The grants are funded through HUD’s HOPE VI Main Street Program.

“Providing affordable housing and increasing economic opportunities are what Mainstreet funding is all about,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “Partnering with our local communities to renovate and rebuild neighborhoods like those in Kit Carson, El Cerrito, and Stayton helps to revitalize smaller cities and towns into thriving and sustainable communities.”

HUD’s Main Street program seeks to rejuvenate older, downtown business districts while retaining the area’s traditional and historic character by providing grants to smaller communities for the development of affordable housing undertaken in connection with an ongoing Main Street revitalization effort. Under Main Street, obsolete commercial offices or buildings can be reconfigured into revenue-producing affordable housing.

The Town of Kit Carson, Colorado will facilitate development of two affordable housing sites. These projects represent the culmination of a larger effort to expand the development of the Town’s Main Street area and provide more affordable housing in this community of 233 residents.

The City of El Cerrito, in Contra Costa County, California, encompasses 3.9 square miles and is part of the San Francisco Bay Area – Northern California region. Main Street funding will help facilitate the construction of 67 affordable units. This project will contribute to revitalizing the Uptown commercial district while fulfilling the goals of the city’s Affordable Housing Strategy by providing affordable units to very-low-income households.

The City of Stayton, Oregon will facilitate the development of residential units in the Diedrich Building and in the former Jensen-Krietzer Department store. The renovation of these two buildings in Stayton’s historic North Third Avenue corridor is the result of a long-term effort to revitalize the North Third Avenue Corridor that came together when the City Council adopted a Downtown Revitalization Plan for this community of 7,800 residents.

This post was originally published here.