The Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative program aims to demonstrate how strategic investment in local housing and businesses can lead to healthy, sustainable communities with a growing tax base and enhanced quality of life.
Donor Name: Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development
State: Maryland
County: Baltimore County (MD) and Anne Arundel County (MD)
City: Baltimore
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/29/2023
Size of the Grant: $12 million
Details:
The program attempts to focus on areas where modest investment and a coordinated strategy will have an appreciable neighborhood revitalization impact.
The overarching goal of Baltimore Regional Neighborhood Initiative (BRNI) is to increase the competitiveness of the target communities in the Baltimore metro area for new homeownership and private-sector business, residential and commercial investment, through such activities as strategic property acquisition, redevelopment, rehabilitation, and new infill development. Target communities are those that can build upon existing strengths and assets to accelerate their momentum in achieving healthy residential markets and economic growth. BRNI investments demonstrate how strategic and innovative approaches to local housing and economic development can lead to healthy, sustainable communities with a growing tax base and enhanced quality-of-life. The program is focused on areas where modest but sustained investment in a comprehensive strategy will have measurable neighborhood impact.
Funding Information
- Grant Amount: $12 million capital
- $500,000 operating
Eligible Projects
Projects should capitalize on the strengths of a community, be targeted in a specific neighborhood or set of neighborhoods and be part of the approved strategic neighborhood revitalization plan.
Projects/activities typically include, but are not limited to:
- Down payment assistance to attract home buyers to purchase and rehabilitate homes
- Programs to acquire or rehabilitate vacant or blighted properties
- Programs to improve existing residential and business properties
- Programs to achieve energy efficiency through weatherization and energy retrofits
- Development of mixed-use projects that combine housing, retail and office space
- Development or enhancement of community open space or public infrastructure
- Workforce and employment development programs
- Strategic demolition
- Operating costs necessary to implement a community enhancement project
There may be additional consideration given to applications that include:
- Opportunities that promote compact redevelopment and connect housing and job opportunities with transportation options.
- Activities in specially designated districts that encourage residential reinvestment that reinforces the success of the businesses in the districts.
- Community enhancement projects that encourage or incorporate elements that address environmental responsibility and stewardship into the site and project development, design, and construction.
- Community enhancement projects that incorporate additional State and local revitalization programs and financing tools.
- Capital investments and business practices that incorporate inclusionary hiring practices that increase local workforce opportunities.
- Projects whose purpose is to identify for acquisition, acquire, develop, or promote the development of vacant or blighted properties.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants are locally based nonprofit community development organizations (CDCs, Coalitions or Partnerships) in Baltimore City, or the inner-beltway communities of Baltimore County or Anne Arundel County, that are implementing a clear revitalization strategy in a specific neighborhood or set of neighborhoods. Cross jurisdictional partnerships are also eligible and encouraged, and projects may be in more than one political subdivision. The revitalization strategy should aim for the goal of growing the targeted community’s population and workforce, and improving key quality-of-life features that establish the conditions for increasing market-rate investment, positioning the target communities to become competitive for residential and economic investment in the region.
For more information, visit MDHCD.
