Policy Brief - March 2021 - Mixed income neighborhoods and integrated schools: Linking HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Policy brief examining how HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) can be better aligned with the Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program to advance school integration alongside mixed-income redevelopment. It reviews CNI’s goals and school-improvement track record, noting that while neighborhood poverty-to-mixed-income transformation is central, applicants often assume local schools will remain high-poverty. The brief argues cross-agency collaboration is a missed opportunity and proposes linking magnet funding and integration planning grants with CNI implementation and planning grants.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative

Program purpose and funding structure

School integration challenges

Differences between Choice Neighborhoods and HOPE VI

Replacement, right to return, and eligibility expansion

Policy recommendations: cross-agency collaboration

Policy Brief March 2021 Mixed income neighborhoods and integrated schools: Linking HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative with the Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program Philip Tegeler & Laura Gevarter 1 The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is HUD’s signature public housing redevelopment program, designed to respond to critiques of the long running HOPE VI program by providing one-for-one replacement housing, a guaranteed right to return for residents, and a more holistic focus on the community and schools surrounding the public housing development, with a goal “transform[ing] neighborhoods of poverty into functioning, sustainable mixed income neighborhoods with appropriate services, schools, public assets, transportation and access to jobs.”2 From its inception, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) has included a strong focus on school improvement and coordination, although the responses of most applicants have been less than robust. And despite the CNI’s emphasis on transforming neighborhoods of poverty into mixed income neighborhoods, this economic integration goal has rarely been applied to the local public school – indeed, with a few notable exceptions HUD and CNI applicants have generally assumed that the local school will remain a high poverty school. This policy brief will review the goals of the Choice Neighborhood Initiative, and the track record of CNI school improvement efforts, as reflected in successful applications for CNI 1 Philip Tegeler is the Executive Director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) and Laura Gevarter is a J. D. candidate at the University of Michigan. The authors are grateful for the research assistance of Chelsea Connery, a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut, and Caroline Doglio, a 2021 PRRAC Policy Intern (Cornell University, class of 2022) . 2 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, [https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-](https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-)[ ](https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-)[116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf.](116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf.) Poverty & Race Research Action Council Policy Brief March 2021 2 funding. We will suggest that HUD and the Department of Education have missed a major opportunity for cross-agency collaboration, which could be achieved by linking magnet school funding and school integration planning grants with Choice Neighborhoods implementation and planning grants. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, launched in 2010, provides funds for public housing authorities and other local entities and aims to redevelop distressed housing projects and transform the neighborhoods surrounding them into “mixed-income, high opportunity communities.”3 The program offers both planning grants and implementation grants; the latter are culled from successful planning grantees, and offer substantial funding for housing redevelopment, neighborhood improvements and social services, based on proposals submitted by grantees.4 Regional magnet school in public housing redevelopment neighborhood. Photo: Stacey Rowe 3 Rolf Pendall & Leah Hendey, A Brief Look at the Early Implementation of Choice Neighborhoods, URBAN INSTITUTE (2013) [hereinafter “Urban Institute Report”] . 4 Martha Galvez, An Early Assessment of Off-Site Replacement Housing, Relocation Planning and Housing Mobility Counseling in HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, PRRAC (2013) . Mixed income neighborhoods and integrated schools 3 The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative built on HUD’s previous public housing redevelopment program-HOPE VI-which focused on replacing or rehabilitating distressed public housing. Hope VI yielded some valuable successes,5 and helped reduce extreme neighborhood poverty in many sites.6 However, the program failed to replace the housing units that it demolished, and forced dis

FAQs

What is the main objective of HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI)?

CNI aims to redevelop distressed public housing and transform surrounding areas into mixed-income, high-opportunity communities through housing redevelopment, services, and improved schools.

Why does the brief say CNI’s school integration approach has been limited?

Although CNI includes a strong focus on school improvement and coordination, many applicants’ responses have been less robust, and the economic integration goal has rarely been applied to local public schools.

How does the brief propose linking federal programs to improve outcomes?

It suggests HUD and the Department of Education should collaborate by linking magnet school funding and school integration planning grants with CNI implementation and planning grants.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel