On October 20th, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in conjunction with the Department of Transportation (DOT), awarded nearly $68 million to 62 local and regional partnerships across the country. This unprecedented collaboration will help stimulate a new generation of sustainable and livable communities that connect affordable housing and job opportunities to transportation and infrastructure improvements.

HUD is awarding $40M in Sustainable Community Challenge (SCC) Grants. These grants will support local communities looking to support affordable and sustainable development by integrating transportation and housing needs. Completing housing development projects in conjunction with transportation projects can greatly increase efficiency of and access to local transportation while encouraging mixed-use or transit-oriented development.

The SCC grants accompany the $100M Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants announced by HUD last week, which will support regional planning efforts to integrate housing, transportation, and environmental strategies in order to encourage local economic development, provide greater housing and transportation choices, and develop long-range visions for community growth.  The SCC grants will leverage investments Surdna has made in Denver, New Orleans, St. Paul, and New York City.

The SCC grants will complement DOT’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II Planning Grants. The grants, totaling $28M, will help communities develop highway, bridge, railway, and other transit projects that connect transportation to housing and community economic development. Two projects in which Surdna has been a longtime investor—the Sheridan Expressway in the Bronx and the Denver TOD program—received $1.5M and $1.15M of TIGER II planning grant funds respectively, while an initiative by the Oregon Department of Transportation to reduce greenhouse gas received $2M of TIGER II funds.

The HUD-DOT collaboration comes shortly after the creation of the Sustainable Communities Partnership, a multi-agency initiative between HUD, DOT, and the EPA launched by President Obama in June 2009. The partnership draws on each agency’s transportation, land use, and housing and community development expertise to support the development of sustainable communities across the country, guided by six Livability Principles. This innovative collaboration will foster connections between local organizations and federal agencies, ensuring that groups have access to the resources necessary to create communities which are equitable, sustainable, and economically vibrant.